BILL NUMBER: SB 416 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 2, 2009
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.
, relating to antibiotics.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 416, as amended, Florez. Antibiotics.
(1) The
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 require authorize a
school district to make every effort to purchase poultry and meat
products that have not been treated with nontherapeutic antibiotics,
and require authorize 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
certain information relating to those products .
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 to request information
from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) relating to
the use of nontherapeutic antibiotics in meat available to California
schools through certain USDA programs. The bill would require the
Superintendent, by July 1, 2011, to provide the Legislature with a
copy of any information provided by the USDA .
(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.
(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.
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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes no .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the
following:
(a) An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United
States go toward healthy livestock, according to a study by the Union
of Concerned Scientists.
(b) It is in the best interest of pupils attending California
schools that those schools procure meat for school lunch and
breakfast programs that are free of nontherapeutic antibiotics.
SECTION 1. SEC. 2. Section 49437 is
added to the Education Code, to read:
49437. (a) A school district shall may
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 not 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
may report annually to the Superintendent. The report
may include, but is not 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 Superintendent shall request that the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) do all of the following:
(A) Provide any information known to the USDA on the use of
nontherapeutic antibiotics in the meat available to California
schools through the USDA's bonus and entitlement commodity programs
for the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program,
including specifying which products contain nontherapeutic
antibiotics.
(B) If information on the use of nontherapeutic antibiotics in
meat as specified in subparagraph (A) is not readily available,
provide information as to when that information will be available.
(3) The Superintendent shall provide the Legislature, no later
than July 1, 2011, with a copy of any information provided by the
USDA pursuant to paragraph (2), including information relating to any
lack of response to the Superintendent's request for information.
(c) 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 microorganisms.
(d) 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.
(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.
(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.