BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1891
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 28, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

              AB 1891 (Committee on Higher Education) - As Introduced:   
                                 February 16, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                              Higher  
          EducationVote:9-0 (Consent)
                        Agriculture                           8-0  
          (Consent)

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill restores in statute two University of California (UC)  
          sustainable agricultural programs that were inadvertently  
          deleted in 2009 legislation.  Specifically, this bill restores  
          the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program  
          (SAREP) and the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS)  
          program.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Negligible fiscal impact, as the bill simply reenacts in statute  
          two current programs operated by UC.

           COMMENTS  

           Purpose .  AB 1182 (Brownley)/Chapter 386 of 2009, streamlined  
          numerous higher education-related reporting requirements, but  
          late amendments also inadvertently deleted the authorization of  
          two sustainable agriculture-related programs at UC.  At the  
          request of UC, this bill restores the statutory authorization  
          for the following:

          1)SAREP, established in the 1980s, was instrumental in helping a  
            new generation of UC agricultural researchers to incorporate  
            sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices into their  
            vocabulary and their scientific investigations. SAREP has a  
            national reputation for developing new practices,  
            disseminating this information on agricultural sustainability,  








                                                                  AB 1891
                                                                  Page  2

            and conducting research with growers on public and private  
            land. 

          2)BIFS, established in 1994, provides UC Cooperative Extension  
            services, training, and financial incentives to farmers who  
            voluntarily participate in pilot projects to reduce their use  
            of chemicals for agricultural production. BIFS projects use  
            on-farm demonstrations and a collaborative model of outreach  
            and extension involving public-private partnerships. Funds for  
            BIFS have been provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection  
            Agency - Region 9, California Department of Food and  
            Agriculture's Buy California Initiative, the U.S. Department  
            of Agriculture, the California Department of Pesticide  
            Regulation, and the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural  
            Resources.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081