Committee reviews bill to recast fertilizer- and soil-related terms as ‘beneficial substances’; labeling, registration, and biosolids discussed

A legislative committee reviewed draft changes to state law that would consolidate several product categories—"plant amendment," "plant biostimulant" and "soil amendment"—under a single term, "beneficial substance," and add related registration, labeling and enforcement provisions.

The measure would adopt a definition of "beneficial substance" to mean "any substance or compound, other than primary, secondary, and micro plant nutrients and excluding pesticides, that can be demonstrated by scientific research to be beneficial to one or more species of plant, soil or growth media." The draft also adds specific new definitions (for example, "plant inoculant" and "soil inoculant") and directs the agency secretary to oversee registration, labeling and enforcement.

Why it matters: the rewrite would bring the state into closer alignment with a uniform model being adopted by other states while expanding the agency's registration and labeling authority for a wider range of products. Committee members flagged possible tradeoffs between regulatory clarity and administrative flexibility, raised questions about fees and enforcement, and sought confirmation that the existing regulatory regime for land application of septic-derived biosolids remains with the Agency of Natural Resources.

Committee discussion and technical details

Committee members and staff walked through the bill's major changes in sequence: consolidating terminology, adding explicit definitions for inoculants…