§ 258-k. Declaration of policy. For the purpose of implementing the provisions of section two hundred fifty-eight-k through section two hundred fifty-eight-n of this article, it is hereby declared that the dairy industry is a paramount agricultural industry of this state and the normal processes of producing and marketing milk have become an enterprise of vast economic importance to the state and of vital interest to the consuming public which ought to be safeguarded and protected in the public interest; that it is the policy of this state to promote, foster and encourage the intelligent and orderly marketing of milk through producer owned and controlled cooperative associations and to promote, foster and encourage as an incident of such marketing, the maintenance, by such associations, jointly or in cooperation with other cooperative associations of programs designed, by means of advertising, publicity, education or otherwise, to promote increased demand for and consumption of milk and dairy products; that unfair, unjust and destructive demoralizing trade practices have been and are likely to be carried on in the production, sale, processing and distribution of milk and that it is a matter of public interest and for the public welfare for the state to promote the orderly exchange of commodities and in cooperation with the federal government or other states in the regulation of interstate commerce, to take such steps as are necessary and advisable to protect the dairy industry and insure an adequate supply of milk for the inhabitants of this state; that for such purpose public interest requires, as necessity therefor has arisen or may arise, the fixing of prices of milk to be paid to producers and associations of producers where there has been or is a disruption of orderly marketing of milk in any marketing area by reason of surpluses or by reason of unfair, unjust or destructive trade practices, that in order to make such price-fixing effective it is necessary that the benefits of the fluid market and the burden of, and the expense of, handling of surpluses, be shared equally by all producers of milk for the marketing area and to this end that dealers not handling their proportionate share of the surplus shall as part of the price of their milk make payments to a fund to equalize the prices of milk to producers and to share the cost of handling surplus so as to remove one of the principal causes of price demoralization.