E Relating to agriculture ARTICLE 1 FARMER LENDER MEDIATIONRepealing the expiration date of the farmer lender mediation programARTICLE 2 CERTIFICATIONS AND INSPECTIONSRequiring the commissioner of agriculture in cooperation with the department of trade and economic development (DTED), the university of Minnesota and the board of animal health to establish a pilot program to certify agricultural production methods and agricultural products grown or processed in the state to assure the integrity of claims by participating businesses, authorizing commissioner establishment of guidelines and requiring a report to the legislature by a certain date; expanding the definition of wholesale produce dealer to persons contracting with producers to grow, raise or provide produce in the state and defining producer as a person producing or causing to be produced produce in a quantity beyond family use to clarify the scope of wholesale produce dealer regulations; requiring the commissioner of agriculture to enter into agreements with local boards of health to delegate grocery or convenience store retail food handlers licensing and inspection duties to the boards upon board request; providing for uniformity in meat and poultry inspection requirements ARTICLE 3 UPDATING FOOD STANDARDS Clarifying the rulemaking authority of the commissioner of agriculture and updating certain standards relating to pesticides, food and color additives, special dietary use, fair packaging and labeling, food and drugs, fishery products, meat and poultry, fresh fruits and vegetables and identity, quantity and fill of containers to federal rules and regulations under the Minnesota food law ARTICLE 4 GRANT PROGRAMSExpanding eligibility under the value added agricultural product processing and marketing grant program to assistance with organizational development, financing and managing new cooperatives and product, business and marketing plans development and defining predesign of facilities for grant eligibility purposes; authorizing grants under the shade tree disease control program to replace trees lost to natural disasters ARTICLE 5 BOARD OF GRAIN STANDARDS Modifying the meeting requirements and certain dockage determination duties of the board of grain standards; eliminating the refund of the appeal notice filing fee and a certain grain inspection and weighing fee payment requirement relating to grain in transitARTICLE 6 EGG HANDLING STANDARDSModifying certain requirements for the handling of eggs, lowering certain temperature requirements ARTICLE 7 RURAL FINANCE AUTHORITYModifying certain eligibility requirements and maximum loan amounts for certain rural finance authority (RFA) loan programsARTICLE 8 LIVESTOCK DEALERS AND GRAIN BUYERSIncreasing the amount of bond required for livestock dealers; clarifying the status of certain grain buying transactions involving voluntary extension of credit; modifying certain provisions under the grain storage act; defining open storage; grain delivered to public grain warehouse operators to be considered stored at the time of delivery without prior arrangements for contract, shipment, consignment or cash sale; authorizing the holding of grain in open storage or placement on a warehouse receipt, specifying certain warehouse receipt issuance requirements; modifying the liability of warehouse operatorsARTICLE 9 AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALSModifying certain provisions regulating pesticides and fertilizers; expanding prohibited pesticide use to pesticides endangering domestic animals; defining custom blend fertilizer and expanding the definition of specialty fertilizer under the fertilizer, soil amendment and plant amendment law; specifying certain separate labeling requirements for custom blend specialty fertilizers, requiring certain information to be furnished to customers on invoices or delivery tickets and exempting the fertilizers from registration requirements under certain conditions and from tonnage report requirements; clarifying the requirement for fertilizer distributors to furnish purchasers with invoices or delivery tickets; imposing a time limit for submission of requests to the commissioner of agriculture for inspection relating to pesticide applications allegedly damaging crops or vegetation ARTICLE 10 FEEDLOT PERMITTINGSubjecting animal feedlot permits issued by the pollution control agency (PCA) or counties to the time deadline for agency action(ra, ja)