Agricultural Prorate Commission Of V. Superior Court Of Los Angeles County

CURTIS, J. The 1933 session of the legislature of this state enacted a statute creating the Agricultural Prorate Commission. (Stats. 1933, p. 1969.) This act is frequently referred to in the briefs of counsel as the Prorate Act, and for the sake of brevity, we shall refer to it by that name or designation. In section 1 of the act is set forth the declaration of the legislature, which may properly be deemed as a statement of the reason and purpose of the legislature in the enactment of this statute. This section is as follows: "The unreasonable waste of agricultural wealth occasioned by the harvesting, preparation for market and delivery to market of greater quantities of agricultural commodities than are reasonably necessary to supply the demands of the market is opposed to the public interest and the difficulty inherent in any attempt by individuals to correlate within a reasonable degree the supply of any agricultural commodity to current consumptive demands is creating chaotic economic conditions in certain agricultural areas of the state of such severity as to imperil the ability of agricultural producers to contribute in appropriate amounts to the support of ordinary governmental and educational functions, thus tending to increase and increasing the tax burdens of other citizens for the same purposes. In the interest of the public welfare and general prosperity of the state, the unnecessary and unreasonable waste of agricultural wealth, hereinafter referred to as 'agricultural waste', involved in the harvesting and/or preparation for and delivery to market of agricultural commodities for which there exists only a limited consumer demand should be eliminated while at the same time preserving to all agricultural producers an equality of opportunity in the available markets."