2023 New Hampshire Revised Statutes › Title I - The State and Its Government › Chapter 21 - Statutory Construction › Section 21:34-a - Farm, Agriculture, Farming.

21:34-a Farm, Agriculture, Farming. –
I. The word "farm" means any land, buildings, or structures on or in which agriculture and farming operations or activities are carried out or conducted and shall include the residence or residences of owners, occupants, or employees located on such land. Structures shall include all farm outbuildings used in the care of livestock; in the production and storage of fruit, vegetables, or nursery stock; in the production of maple syrup; greenhouses for the production of annual or perennial plants; and any other structures used in the operations or activities named in paragraph II(a) or (b) of this section or any combination of such individual operations or activities.
II. The words "agriculture" and "farming" mean all operations or activities of a farm, including:
(a)(1) The cultivation, conservation, or tillage of the soil.
(2) The storage and use of or spreading of commercial fertilizer, lime, wood ash, sawdust, compost, animal manure, septage, and, where permitted by municipal and state rules and regulations, other lawful soil amendments.
(3) The use of or application of agricultural chemicals.
(4) The husbandry of livestock which shall include but not be limited to all beef or dairy cattle, steer, oxen, goats, sheep, swine, horses, mules or other equidae, as well as domesticated strains of buffalo, bison, llamas, alpacas, emus, ostriches, poultry, rabbits, yaks, elk (Cervus canadensis), fallow deer (Dama dama), red deer (Cervus elephus), or reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).
(5) The husbandry, boarding, training, or riding instruction of equines.
(6) The husbandry and harvesting aquaculture products including fresh or salt water finfish, shellfish, or other aquatic organisms grown for consumption or processing.
(7) The husbandry of poultry or game birds or production of eggs.
(8) The husbandry of bees or production of honey.
(9) The husbandry of domesticated strains of fur-bearing animals.
(10) The production of greenhouse crops.
(11) The production, cultivation, growing, or harvesting of any agricultural, floricultural, viticultural, forestry, or horticultural crops including, but not limited to, berries, herbs, honey, maple syrup, fruit, vegetables, tree fruit, grapes, flowers, seeds, grasses, nursery stock, sod, trees or tree products, Christmas trees grown as part of a commercial Christmas tree operation, trees grown for short rotation tree fiber, compost, or any plant that can be legally grown or harvested extensively for profit or subsistence.
(b) Any practice or activity on the farm incident to, ancillary to, or in conjunction with such farming operations, including, but not necessarily restricted to:
(1) Preparation for market, delivery to storage or to market, or to carriers for transportation to market of any products or materials from the farm.
(2) The transportation to the farm of supplies and materials.
(3) The transportation of farm workers.
(4) Forestry or lumbering operations.
(5) Marketing or selling at wholesale or retail, regardless of the manner or form of the transaction, any livestock or products derived principally from the production of the farm, including, but not limited to items listed in subparagraph (a), whether on-site or off-site, provided that marketing such products is not specifically prohibited by local regulations. For the purposes of this section marketing shall include agritourism, which means attracting visitors to a farm to attend events or activities that are accessory uses to the primary farm operation, including, but not limited to, being provided a meal, making overnight stays, enjoyment of the farm environment, education which shall be instruction or learning about the farm's operations, or active involvement in the activities of the farm.
(6) Irrigation of growing crops from private water supplies or public water supplies where not prohibited by state or local rule or regulation.
(7) The use of dogs for herding, working, or guarding livestock, as defined in RSA 21:34-a, II(a)(4).
(8) The production and storage of compost and the materials necessary to produce compost, whether such materials originate, in whole or in part, from operations of the farm.
III. A farm roadside stand shall remain an agricultural operation and not be considered commercial, provided that at least 35 percent of the product sales in dollar volume is attributable to products produced on the farm or farms of the stand owner.
IV. Management practices on the farm shall include technologies recommended from time to time by the university of New Hampshire cooperative extension, the New Hampshire department of agriculture, markets, and food, or appropriate agencies of the United States Department of Agriculture.
V. The term "farmers' market" means an event or series of events at which 2 or more vendors of agricultural commodities gather for purposes of offering for sale such commodities to the public. Commodities offered for sale must include, but are not limited to, products of agriculture, as defined in paragraphs I-IV. "Farmers' market" shall not include any event held upon any premises owned, leased, or otherwise controlled by any individual vendor selling therein.
VI. [Repealed.]
Source.
1961, 140:1. 1977, 95:1. 1979, 60:1. 1985, 6:1. 1997, 250:1. 1999, 191:2. 2005, 107:1. 2006, 11:5; 326:1. 2007, 157:1. 2008, 8:1, eff. July 4, 2008. 2014, 97:2, eff. Aug. 10, 2014. 2016, 267:1, 6, eff. June 16, 2016. 2019, 338:1-3, eff. Sept. 5, 2019.