7 U.S.C. § 6101 — Findings and declaration of policy

(a) Findings. Congress finds that: (1) mushrooms^* are important food and valuable in the human diet; (2) mushroom production significantly contributes to the Nation’s economy, involving hundreds of producers, thousands of wholesale and retail outlets, and millions of consumers in the United States^* and abroad; (3) production benefits the environment by efficiently using agricultural byproducts; (4) mushrooms must be high-quality, available, properly handled, and efficiently marketed; (5) maintaining and expanding markets and uses and developing new ones are vital to producers, people who market or use mushrooms, and the Nation’s agricultural economy; (6) producers and others need to cooperatively develop, finance, and carry out a coordinated promotion^*, research^*, and consumer-information program; and (7) mushrooms move in interstate and foreign commerce^*, while mushrooms not moving through those channels directly burden or affect interstate mushroom commerce.

(b) Policy. Congress declares that it is in the public interest to authorize, through this chapter, an orderly process for developing, financing through adequate assessments on domestically produced or imported mushrooms, and carrying out a continuous, effective, coordinated program of promotion, research, and consumer and industry information^* designed to: (1) strengthen the mushroom industry in the marketplace; (2) maintain and expand existing mushroom markets and uses; and (3) develop new markets and uses.

(c) Construction. This chapter does not provide for production control or otherwise limit an individual producer’s right to produce mushrooms.