BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2612
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2612 (Agriculture Committee)
As Amended June 16, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |74-0 |(May 6, 2010) |SENATE: |34-0 |(August 9, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: AGRI.
SUMMARY : Deletes third party certifying for pesticide container
recycling; expands the rendering definition of a "collection
center;" changes the collection centers' licensure expiration
date; exempts registered collections centers from specified
fees; authorizes promulgation of regulations to streamline
organic registration; clarifies the administration of the State
Organic Program (SOP); authorizes the development of an online
SOP registration system; and, makes conforming changes.
The Senate amendments :
1)Eliminate the third-party certification for compliance for
plastic pesticide container recycling programs and change
responsibility for establishing a plastic pesticide container
recycling program from the first seller to the registrant of
any production agricultural use or structural-use pesticide
product sold in California.
2)Extend the sunset date from January 1, 2011, to January 1,
2016, for the $100 food safety fee paid by persons engaged in
manufacturing, packing, or holding of processed food in
California used for industry food safety education and
training.
3)Require a precise physical description of the facility or farm
location for exempt organic producers to be submitted to
county agriculture commissioners.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill expanded the definition of
a "collection center" for rendering, changed their licensure
expiration date to calendar year-end, and exempted collection
centers' registration if they are licensed; authorized
promulgation of regulations to streamline SOP registration;
AB 2612
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clarified the administration of SOP; authorized the development
of an online registration system; and, made technical
non-substantial changes.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Committee on
Appropriations, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible costs.
COMMENTS : This is an Omnibus Committee bill which updates and
makes clarifications to the statutes dealing with the pesticide
container recycling, collection and handling of dead animals,
California Organic Program Act (COPA), and food safety
education. These proposals have been submitted by the
respective industry and have no known opposition.
In 2008, SB 1723 (Maldonado) was passed, intending to conform to
federal regulations that were moving forward to require a third
party certifier for pesticide containers, but in October 2008,
those federal regulations were dropped, therefore, we need to
remove the third party certifier from our codes, and make
conforming and technical corrections.
The rendering program has been under review by the industry and
the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in
preparation for a comprehensive regulatory update. During this
review, certain provisions of law were identified that needed
updating. The definition of collection center, the fee section
and calendar year regulatory authority were three provisions
that needed clarifying language to modernize the program
statutes.
In December 2008, SOP staff, the California Organic Program
Advisory Committee (COPAC), and participants from the organic
industry formed the Organic Products Technical Planning
Committee (TPC) to begin the process of reviewing and evaluating
SOP's policies and procedures. One of the primary goals of TPC
was to streamline the organic registration process. Organic
registration is a complex and time consuming process that
duplicates much of the information collected by accredited
certifying agencies (ACA). The complexity inherent within the
organic registration process has led to difficulties for
counties in maintaining consistency in the review of information
included on organic registration forms as well as for organic
operations in completing registration forms. Additionally, a
significant amount of time and resources are allocated by SOP to
review and correct applications prior to approval. At the
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request of TPC, SOP evaluated the feasibility of streamlining
the organic registration process by promulgating regulations
which would have exempted certified organic registrants from
submitting information directly to SOP that is already submitted
to their respective ACAs.
This proposal would allow CDFA to promulgate regulations to
streamline the organic registration process. This proposal would
also clarify inconsistencies within COPAC and the program in
order for CDFA to properly administer SOP. Sellers of $5000 or
less of organic products do not need to be certified, but
agricultural commissioners still need to be able to identify
their location, so the requirement for these exempt producers or
handlers to provide mapping of their precise farm location is
included. Finally, current statute does not provide a mechanism
to transition to an online based system for organic
registration. While there are no immediate plans to implement
online based systems at this time, these changes would allow SOP
to transition to an online based system of registration when
appropriate. These statutory changes are anticipated to save
several hundred hours in staff time, which will be reallocated
to compliance and enforcement activities.
Analysis Prepared by : Jim Collin / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084
FN: 0005108