Colorado § 35-28-104 - Definitions.

§ 35-28-104. Definitions.

As used in this article 28, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) (a) "Agricultural commodity" means any agricultural, horticultural, floricultural, viticultural, and vegetable products, livestock and livestock products, wheat, hay, corn, millet, bees and honey, poultry and poultry products, and milk and milk products, either in their natural state or as processed, including any marketable agricultural product, but does not include sugar beets, timber and timber products, oats, malting barley, barley, hops, rice, milo, and other feed grains. These exceptions are the sole exemptions, irrespective of any other exemptions provided by law, and particularly as set forth in section 35-28-122.

(b) Nothing in paragraph (a) of this subsection (1), as amended by House Bill 05-1180, as enacted at the first regular session of the sixty-fifth general assembly, shall be construed as changing the property tax classification of property owned by a floricultural operation.

(2) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of agriculture or the commissioner's duly authorized representative.

(3) "Distributor" means a person engaged in the operation of selling, offering for sale, marketing, or distributing an agricultural commodity that the person has produced, purchased, or acquired from a producer, handler, or other distributor, or that the person is marketing on behalf of a producer, handler, or other distributor, whether as owner, agent, employee, broker, or otherwise. "Distributor" does not include a retailer; except that "distributor" includes a retailer that purchases or acquires from, or handles on behalf of a producer, handler, or other distributor an agricultural commodity that is not subject to regulation by the marketing order covering the commodity.

(4) "Grade" means the official United States or Colorado terminology applied to agricultural commodities as determined by the presence or absence of certain quality and other factors.

(5) "Handler" means any person engaged in the operation of purchasing, packing, grading, selling, offering for sale, or marketing any marketable agricultural product; or any person who, as the producer, owner, agent, or otherwise, ships or causes an agricultural product to be shipped; or any governmental entity that obtains from a producer any interest in an agricultural commodity covered by a marketing agreement or order in connection with a governmental agricultural commodity program. The commissioner shall have the power to determine or specify who is a "handler" with respect to an agricultural commodity under a marketing agreement or order.

(6) "Marketable agricultural product" is a product which meets the requirements for regulation under any marketing order, marketing agreement, or regulation in effect in the area in which the same is produced, handled, or distributed.

(7) "Marketing agreement" means a voluntary agreement between producers, handlers, processors, or distributors and the commissioner of agriculture in which the producers, handlers, processors, or distributors who sign such agreement agree to follow certain rules set forth by the agreement.

(8) "Marketing order" means an order issued by the commissioner of agriculture pursuant to this article, prescribing rules and regulations governing the processing, distributing, sale of, or handling in any manner of any agricultural commodity in Colorado during any specified period or periods.

(9) "Person" means an individual, firm, corporation, association, or any other business unit.

(10) "Processor" means any person engaged in the operation of producing for processing, or in the operation of receiving, grading, packing, canning, fermenting, distilling, extracting, preserving, grinding, crushing, or changing the form of an agricultural product for the purpose of marketing such commodity, but shall not include a person engaged in manufacturing from an agricultural commodity, so changed in form, another and different product.

(11) "Producer" means any person engaged within this state in the business of producing, or causing to be produced for market, any agricultural commodity.

(12) "Product" means an agricultural commodity which has been placed in condition for sale or distribution.

(13) "Retailer" means a person that purchases or acquires an agricultural commodity for resale at retail to the general public at a fixed business location in the state for consumption off such premises. A retailer may also be a distributor, to the extent that the person engages in the business of a distributor.

(14) "To distribute" means to engage in the business of a distributor as defined in this section.

(15) "To handle" means to engage in the business of a handler as defined in this section.

(16) "To process" means to engage in the business of a processor as defined in this section.

(17) "Unfair competition" means the use of unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive practices in business for the purpose of, or having the natural and probable effect of, eliminating or injuring competition, and shall include, but not be limited to: Sales below cost, except those made in good faith to meet a legal price of a competitor; discriminatory pricing; discriminatory discounting and rebating, either direct or indirect; unreasonable extensions of credit; subsidizing of customers; misleading labeling or advertising; and solicitation by misleading or false statements.

Source: L. 39: p. 195, § 4. CSA: C. 106, § 49. L. 51: p. 559, § 1. L. 53: p. 116, § 1. CRS 53: § 7-3-4. L. 55: pp. 147, 148, §§ 3, 4. L. 57: p. 133, § 1. L. 58: p. 101, § 1. L. 63: p. 161, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 7-3-4. L. 69: p. 112, § 3. L. 70: p. 116, §§ 1, 2. L. 79: (1) amended, p. 1324, § 1, effective May 31. L. 94: (1) amended, p. 327, § 12, effective March 1, 1995. L. 2001: (5) amended, p. 3, § 1, effective August 8. L. 2005: (1) amended, p. 351, § 11, effective August 8. L. 2018: IP and (1)(a) amended, (SB 18-188), ch. 149, p. 940, § 1, effective August 8. L. 2025: (2), (3), and (13) amended, (HB 25-1084), ch. 24, p. 116, § 84, effective August 6.