NEWS RELEASE
MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
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LANSING — Each year, the first week of March celebrates an important consumer protection watchdog housed within the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD).
MDARD’s Weights and Measures program is responsible for ensuring the devices retailers use to weigh and measure goods and products function properly. Inspectors verify everything from the accuracy of gas pumps and grocery scales to the content of the packages that consumers purchase.
"MDARD plays an important role in ensuring every Michigander is getting fair value when they’re out buying goods and products, and that’s credit to our inspectors who work incredibly hard to ensure accuracy in the marketplace,” said MDARD Director Tim Boring. “National Weights and Measures Week is a yearly reminder of their important role in consumer protection.”
Each year, Weights and Measures Week is celebrated nationally from March 1-7 to commemorate President John Adams signing the first U.S. weights and measures legislation into law on March 2, 1799.
“With spring right around the corner, MDARD will be checking for items of particular interest to consumers this time of year, like bags of mulch and soil,” said Craig VanBuren, MDARD’s Laboratory and Consumer Protection Bureau Director. “And, of course, let’s not forget the gallon of gas you buy for your lawnmower. Our inspectors work daily to ensure Michiganders get what they’re paying for every time.”
Consumers with concerns about any advertisement, purchase, service, or transaction based on weight, measure, or count may call 800-632-3835 to register a complaint.
Additional information about the department’s weights program is available online.
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