§ 1 — Legislative findings and purposes

Section 1. Legislative findings and purposes. The legislature finds\nthat the wine/grape industry is a significant part of the state's\nagricultural industry and that the continued production of wine,\nunfermented juice and table grapes is of significant importance to the\neconomy of the state.\n The legislature further finds that in recent years economic conditions\nhave had an adverse effect on the wine/grape industry, especially grape\ngrowers, resulting predominately from an international surplus of\ngrapes. Such economic disadvantages have included various incentives\nmade available by their counties to European wine producers, tariff and\nnon-tariff barriers to United States wines entering other countries and\nmost recently, a strong United States dollar which has increased the\nprice of all domestic wines in relation to foreign wines. All these\nconditions have resulted in a decline in New York's share of the\nnational and international wine market.\n The legislature further finds and recognizes that an important step in\nstrengthening the agricultural and economic potential of New York's\nwine/grape industry is to encourage the long term operation of an\norganization, representative of all sectors of the grape industry for\nthe purpose of conducting an extensive and coordinated promotional and\napplied research program intended to stimulate and centralize the New\nYork wine/grape industry.\n For these purposes, there shall be created a non-profit corporation\nknown as the "New York wine/grape foundation", which may independently\ninitiate promotional and research projects to fulfill essential public\npurposes which are necessary for the health, safety and welfare of the\npeople of this state.\n