Legislative Update: Typically, the last night of the legislative session is chaotic at best. Unfortunately, the close of the 2009 session, which ended around 6:00 AM last Saturday morning, was down-right ugly. For better or worse, the comprehensive water bond package blew-up. Additionally, Senate Republicans withheld votes on 20 urgency bills (requiring 27 votes) thus blocking passage until next year. Most of these were noncontroversial bills, including SB 140 (Corbett), which would establish the Citrus Nursery Stock Pest Cleanliness Program to protect citrus nursery source propagative trees from harmful diseases, pests, and other risks and threats. Three other agricultural bills were also stalled until next year:
Pomegranates – SB 190 (Wright): Requires the Department of Public Health, by July 1, 2011, in consultation with interested parties, to adopt regulations establishing definitions and standards of identity for 100% pomegranate juice consistent with ensuring the public health.
Border Inspection Stations - AB 219 (Ruskin): Increases fines to $2500 on vehicle operators who fail to obtain a certificate of inspection when entering California with an agricultural shipment.
Cotton Board - AB 604 (Fuller): Permits the San Joaquin Valley Cotton Board with the concurrence of the Secretary of Food & Agriculture to periodically determine what specific sections of the district's authorizing chapter and related regulations shall be operative and for what period of time.
Under normal circumstances the legislature wouldn’t convene until January 2010. However, because of the State’s dire fiscal problems and the lack of agreement on a water bond package, the legislature will most likely be called back to Sacramento within a few weeks. In the meantime, the following bills are on their way to the Governor’s desk for action:
AB 281 - Citrus Disease Prevention (De Leon): Establishes an industry funded California Citrus Disease Prevention Committee within CDFA to conduct informational programs to educate residential owners of citrus fruit on the prevention of diseases or vectors specific to citrus and programs for surveying, detecting, and analyzing citrus diseases.
Apple Pests - AB 443 (Galgiani): Implements the California Apple Pest and Disease Prevention Act of 2009 to ensure that apples produced or handled in the state are pest and disease free.
Commercial Feed – AB 547 (Mendoza): Extends until 2015 the authority to assess commercial feed license fees ranging from $100 - $600 annually.
Organics - AB 557 (Caballero): Adds an USDA accredited certifier to the membership of the California Organic Products Advisory Committee from 15 to 16. The additional member must be a by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Blueberry Commission - AB 606 (Ma): Authorizes the establishment of a California Blueberry Commission to promote blueberries; educate the wholesale and retail trade on proper handling; conduct and contract research on production, marketing and distribution.
Wheat Commission - AB 735 (Assembly Committee on Agriculture): Reduces the number of producer members on the California Wheat Commission from 15 to 13 and adds two at-large members.
Organic Fertilizer – AB 856 (Caballero): Includes organic inputs into CDFA’s fertilizer inspection program and changes the make-up of the advisory board to include one organic input material producer and one organic grower.
Agricultural Commodities - AB 905 (Assembly Committee on Agriculture): Removes the 200 pound per lot minimum exception that applies to showing proof of ownership in any transaction relating to the sale, purchase or transportation of any fruit, nut or vegetable.
Miscellaneous Ag Provisions - AB 945 (Assembly Committee on Agriculture): Extends the sunset for CDFA’s Fruit and Vegetable Standardization program to January 1, 2015.
Hotline - AB 1069 (Monning): Requires the CDFA to maintain a toll free telephone hotline staffed by public health personnel during an urban pest eradication projects using ground or aerial pesticide applications.
Honey – AB 1216 (Evans): Establishes new standards of identity base on the Revised Codex Standard for Honey, which defines honey and sets rules on essential composition and quality.
Dead Animal Haulers – AB 1249 (Galgiani): Authorizes CDFA to issue a permit to licensed renderers, collection centers or animal hauler to haul carcasses to a permitted landfill in the event of an emergency, or if a licensed hauler has a certification from a licensed renderer that they can’t process the dead animal.
Seed Inspection – AB 1255 (Tom Berryhill) : Extends, until 2015, statutory authorization that allows counties to receive industry paid subvention funds for local seed enforcement activities.
Organics – AB 1401 (Ma): Establishes the Transition to Organics Fund within CDFA consisting of monies collected from federal, industry and citizen sources to provide assistance to persons transitioning their farms from uncertified to certified organic production.
Ag Burning – SB 382 (Florez): Provides that an agricultural burn permit within the jurisdiction of the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District is invalid on days in which the district prohibits the use of wood burning fireplaces and heaters.
Pierce’s Disease – SB 2 (Wiggins): Extends statutory authorization of the Pierce's Disease Control Program and the Pierce's Disease Management Account in the Food and Agriculture Fund until March 1, 2016.
Food Safety – SB 173 (Florez): Authorizes the State Public Health Officer to adopt regulations regarding the voluntary recall of food that, without intervention, could transmit an illness that could kill or seriously affect the health of humans, as specified.
Manlifts - SB 478 (Wolk): Authorizes the owner or operator of agricultural production, processing, and handling facilities, as defined, to designate a competent employee, who is not required to be a certified competent conveyance mechanic, to maintain and test, as specified, the manlifts used at the facilities.
LBAM: In response to petitions submitted by the Pesticide Action Network North America and several individuals to block USDA’s Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) eradication project, the National Research Council (NRC) determined the Department was properly acting within its broad regulatory authority to classify LBAM as an "actionable" pest.
In 2007, USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) classified LBAM as an "actionable quarantine significant pest" and carried-out its authority to implement a program of quarantine restrictions and eradication. USDA’s actions were met with strong opposition from anti-spray activists in the quarantine areas. Their collective efforts proved to be extremely problematic to federal and state efforts eradication activities. Thus, APHIS asked the NRC to assess the project last February.
A panel of NRC experts reviewed the project and issued a 31-page draft report on Monday validating LBAM as "actionable" under USDA rules. In doing so, however, the NRC felt USDA probably would have done better if it had explained why the moth was such a big deal in the first place. The committee found APHIS worked within its broad regulatory powers to declare that the moth is of potential economic importance and is actionable. Nevertheless, APHIS had not communicated its justification for taking action. To improve, APHIS should define terms relating to pest status explicitly and clearly. Independently of the draft response, it should consider the development of guidelines to quantify when damage can objectively be considered of "economic importance," the report says.
Within the next few weeks the draft report will be internally reviewed and then published in the Federal Register for public comment. Ultimately, a final determination will be made as to whether or not the LBAM maintains its classification as an “actionable pest.”
Bio Mass Funding:
The Acting California State Executive Director for the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), David Schaad, announced biomass conversion facilities may begin to apply for qualification under the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). This allows producers or owners of eligible material, who sell to these facilities, to apply for matching payments under the collection, harvest, storage and transportation (CHST) component of BCAP. An eligible material owner may receive a matching CHST payment for material delivered to a qualified biomass conversion facility. Payments will be made at a rate of $1.00 for $1.00 per dry-ton equivalent received from a qualified biomass conversion facility, not to exceed $45.00 per dry-ton equivalent. An eligible material owner may receive payments for a period of two years. The purpose of the matching payments is to assist biomass producers with the CHST cost of
delivering biomass to a qualified biomass conversion facility.
Biomass conversion facilities may become “qualified” by signing an Agreement with FSA state offices. The Agreement generally provides the framework that facilitates the making of CHST matching payments to eligible material owners or producers who plan to deliver biomass to that facility. Interested biomass conversion facilities should contact their FSA state offices for further information and can visit http://www.fsa.usda.gov/energy to download and review the Agreement.
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