(a) It is declared to be in the interest of the public welfare that the North Carolina farmers who are producers of livestock, poultry, seafood, field crops and other agricultural products, including cattle, sheep, broilers, turkeys, commercial eggs, peanuts, cotton, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peaches, apples, berries, vegetables and other fruits of all kinds, as well as bulbs and flowers and other agricultural products having a domestic or foreign market, shall be permitted and encouraged to act jointly and in cooperation with growers, handlers, dealers and processors of such products in promoting and stimulating, by advertising and other methods, the increased production, use and sale, domestic and foreign, of any and all of such agricultural commodities. The provisions of this Article, however, shall not include the agricultural products of tobacco, strawberries, strawberry plants, porcine animals, or equines, with respect to which separate provisions have been made.

(b) The “Got to be NC” marketing campaign of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services shall be the official agricultural marketing campaign for the State. (1947, c. 1018, s. 1; 1951, c. 1172, s. 1; 1957, cc. 260, 1352; 1989 (Reg. Sess., 1990), c. 1027, s. 1.1; 1991, c. 605, s. 2; 1995, c. 521, s. 1; 1998-154, s. 2; 2014-100, s. 13.4; 2014-103, s. 15.)