BILL NUMBER: SB 416 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 6, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 22, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 16, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Senator Florez
FEBRUARY 26, 2009
An act to add Section 49437 to the Education Code, to add Section
18739 to the Food and Agricultural Code, and to add Section 4335 to
the Government Code, relating to antibiotics.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 416, as amended, Florez. Antibiotics.
(1) The Pupil Nutrition, Health, and Achievement Act of 2001
requires a school to follow the Enhanced Food Based Meal Pattern,
Nutrient Standard Meal Planning, or Traditional Meal Pattern
developed by the United States Department of Agriculture or the
Shaping Health as Partners in Education (SHAPE) Menu Patterns
developed by the state in order to qualify for reimbursement for free
and reduced-price meals sold or served to pupils. The act
additionally prescribes nutrition standards for snacks sold to pupils
in middle, junior, or high school with certain exceptions, and
prohibits the sale of certain beverages to a pupil at an elementary
school, except as specified. Existing law, commencing July 1, 2009,
prohibits schools from making available to pupils food containing
artificial trans fat, as specified.
This bill would prohibit, commencing January 1, 2012, a school or
school district from serving poultry and meat products treated with
nontherapeutic antibiotics to pupils, thereby imposing a
state-mandated local program.
This bill would require a school district to make every effort to
purchase poultry and meat products that have not been treated with
nontherapeutic antibiotics, and require each school district that
purchases such poultry or meat products, or each school district that
does not know if the products have been treated with nontherapeutic
antibiotics, to report annually to the Superintendent of Public
Instruction the reasons those products were purchased, along with
certain other information. The bill would require the Superintendent,
commencing January 1, 2012, and annually thereafter, to compile
those reports and report to the Legislature, as provided. The bill
would require the reports of the school district and the
Superintendent to be available to the public upon request. By
imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, this bill
would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) Existing law authorizes the Secretary of Food and Agriculture,
if the secretary determines that an animal raised for the production
of any food product is or may be carrying in its body pesticides,
poisons, or other deleterious substances, including, among others,
antibiotics, which may render any food product from such animal
injurious to human health, to order the animal held and segregated
until the secretary has determined that the animal may safely be
released for human food purposes.
This bill would, commencing January 1, 2015, prohibit a person
from using antibiotics for nontherapeutic use in any animal raised
for the production of any human food product.
Under existing law, a violation of this provision of the bill
would be a crime. Because this bill would create new crimes, the bill
would impose a state-mandated local program.
(3) Under existing law, in the purchase of supplies, state and
local governments are required to prefer supplies grown,
manufactured, or produced in this state.
This bill would also require state and local governments, when
purchasing meat supplies, to prefer meat supplies produced without
the use of medically important antibiotics as feed additives. Because
this requirement would impose a new duty on local governmental
agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no
reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that,
if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains
costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall
be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 49437 is added to the Education Code, to read:
49437. (a) Commencing January 1, 2012, a school or school
district shall not serve poultry and meat products treated with
nontherapeutic antibiotics to pupils.
49437. (a) A school district shall make every
effort to purchase poultry and meat products that have not been
treated with nontherapeutic antibiotics.
(b) (1) Each school district that purchases poultry or meat
products that have been treated with nontherapeutic antibiotics, or
each school district that does not know if the products have been
treated with nontherapeutic antibiotics, shall report annually to the
Superintendent the reasons those products were purchased, including,
but not limited to, that no other product could be found, other
products were more expensive, or the school district could not
determine if the product had been treated with nontherapeutic
antibiotics. The report shall include, but not be limited to, a list
of products purchased, the names of the companies from which the
products were purchased, the cost of each product, and the cost of a
comparable product known not to have been treated with nontherapeutic
antibiotics.
(2) The report of each school district shall be available to the
public upon request.
(3) Commencing January 1, 2012, and annually thereafter, the
Superintendent shall compile the reports of each school district and
report to the Legislature on the feasibility of phasing in a
requirement that every school district be prohibited from serving
poultry and meat products treated with nontherapeutic antibiotics to
pupils. Each report of the Superintendent to the Legislature shall be
available to the public upon request.
(b)
(c) For purposes of this section, "antibiotic" and
"nontherapeutic" have the same meaning as those terms are given in
Section 18739 of the Food and Agricultural Code.
SEC. 2. Section 18739 is added to the Food and Agricultural Code,
to read:
18739. (a) Commencing January 1, 2015, no person shall use
antibiotics for nontherapeutic use in any animal raised for the
production of any human food product.
(b) For purposes of this section, "antibiotic" means any drug
intended for use in food-producing animals that is composed wholly or
partly of either of the following:
(1) Any kind of penicillin, tetracycline, macrolide, lincosamide,
streptogramin, minoglycoside, or sulfonamide.
(2) Any other drug or derivative of a drug that is used in humans
or intended for use in humans to treat or prevent disease or
infection caused by micro-organisms.
(c) For purposes of this section, "nontherapeutic use," with
respect to antibiotics, means any use of the drug as a feed or water
additive for an animal in the absence of any clinical sign of disease
in the animal for growth promotion, feed efficiency, weight gain,
routine disease prevention, or other routine purpose.
SEC. 3. Section 4335 is added to the Government Code, to read:
4335. (a) All state and local governmental agency personnel
charged with purchasing meat products for human consumption shall
always prefer meat supplies produced without the use of medically
important antibiotics as feed additives.
(b) For purposes of this section, "antibiotic" has the same
meaning as that term is given in Section 18739 of the Food and
Agricultural Code.
SEC. 4. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution for
certain costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district because, in that regard, this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.
However, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains other costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to
local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made
pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of
Title 2 of the Government Code.