Powers and Duties

1. Law
2. Tennessee Code
3. State Government
4. Creation, Organization and Powers of Administrative Departments and Divisions
5. Department of Agriculture
6. Powers and Duties

The department of agriculture has the power to:

1. Encourage and promote, in every practicable manner, the interests of agriculture, including horticulture, livestock industry, dairying, poultry raising, beekeeping, production of wool and other allied industries;
2. Promote and improve methods of conducting agricultural industries, with a view to increasing the production, and facilitating the distribution, of products at minimum cost;
3. Collect, publish and distribute statistics relating to crop production and marketing of beef, pork, poultry, fish, mutton, wool, butter, cheese and other agricultural products, so far as such statistical information may be of value to the agricultural and allied interests of the state;
4. Inquire into the cause of contagious, infectious and communicable diseases among domestic animals, and the means for the prevention and cure of the same;
5. Assist, encourage and promote the organization of farmers' institutes, horticultural and agricultural societies, the holding of fairs, stock shows or other exhibits of the products of agriculture;
6. Cooperate with producers and consumers in devising and maintaining economical and efficient systems of distribution, and to aid in whatever way may be consistent or necessary in accomplishing the reduction of waste and expenses in marketing;
7. Cooperate with the agricultural college, the experiment stations of the state university and the federal government;
8. Enter and inspect any rights-of-way of any highway, railway, field, orchard, nursery, fruit packing house, storeroom, depot or other place where fruits are grown or stored, and inspect fruits, trees, plants, vines, shrubs or other articles within the state, and if such plant life is infected with pests or with their eggs or larvae, or with any contagious disease injurious to plant life, abate the same as a nuisance;
9. Enforce all of the penal and regulatory laws of the state in the same manner and with like authority as the sheriffs of the counties; and
10. 1. Promulgate rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the purposes, duties and responsibilities of the department. Such rules and regulations shall be promulgated in accordance with the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in chapter 5 of this title, except as otherwise provided by law.
    2. The enactment of a federal declaration of an extraordinary emergency or issuance of an emergency federal order or similar federal enactment that relates to the spread of plant or animal disease, the spread of pests from state to state, the protection of the food or feed supply, or that otherwise relates matters generally regulated by the department shall be deemed to constitute sufficient evidence of an immediate danger to the public health, safety or welfare of such a nature to justify the enactment of emergency rules for purposes of § 4-5-208(a).

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