Title 7 — AgricultureRelease 119-73

§7481 Findings and declaration of policy

Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 101— - AGRICULTURAL PROMOTION › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER V— - POPCORN › § 7481

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Creates a national, ongoing program—paid for by assessments on unpopped popcorn processed in the United States—to promote popcorn, fund research, and share information with consumers and the popcorn industry. Congress found that popcorn is a common, valuable food that supports many jobs, moves across state and national lines, and needs good quality, handling, and marketing to keep and grow markets at home and abroad. The program must help all popcorn products and grow overall markets without favoring any single producer or brand. It cannot replace private advertising, will allow government-funded messages about government goals, must treat processors fairly, and will not block imported popcorn or limit anyone’s right to produce popcorn.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §7481

Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Congress finds that—

(1)popcorn is an important food that is a valuable part of the human diet;

(2)the production and processing of popcorn plays a significant role in the economy of the United States in that popcorn is processed by several popcorn processors, distributed through wholesale and retail outlets, and consumed by millions of people throughout the United States and foreign countries;

(3)popcorn must be of high quality, readily available, handled properly, and marketed efficiently to ensure that the benefits of popcorn are available to the people of the United States;

(4)the maintenance and expansion of existing markets and uses and the development of new markets and uses for popcorn are vital to the welfare of processors and persons concerned with marketing, using, and producing popcorn for the market, as well as to the agricultural economy of the United States;

(5)the cooperative development, financing, and implementation of a coordinated program of popcorn promotion, research, consumer information, and industry information is necessary to maintain and expand markets for popcorn; and

(6)popcorn moves in interstate and foreign commerce, and popcorn that does not move in those channels of commerce directly burdens or affects interstate commerce in popcorn.

(b)It is the policy of Congress that it is in the public interest to authorize the establishment, through the exercise of the powers provided in this subchapter, of an orderly procedure for developing, financing (through adequate assessments on unpopped popcorn processed domestically), and carrying out an effective, continuous, and coordinated program of promotion, research, consumer information, and industry information designed to—

(1)strengthen the position of the popcorn industry in the marketplace; and

(2)maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets and uses for popcorn.

(c)The purposes of this subchapter are to—

(1)maintain and expand the markets for all popcorn products in a manner that—

(A)is not designed to maintain or expand any individual share of a producer or processor of the market;

(B)does not compete with or replace individual advertising or promotion efforts designed to promote individual brand name or trade name popcorn products; and

(C)authorizes and funds programs that result in government speech promoting government objectives; and

(2)establish a nationally coordinated program for popcorn promotion, research, consumer information, and industry information.

(d)This subchapter treats processors equitably. Nothing in this subchapter—

(1)provides for the imposition of a trade barrier to the entry into the United States of imported popcorn for the domestic market; or

(2)provides for the control of production or otherwise limits the right of any individual processor to produce popcorn.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 7481

Title 7 — Agriculture

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73