BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 234
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
234 (Gordon)
As Amended September 4, 2015
Majority vote
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|ASSEMBLY: | | (May 11, |SENATE: |27-13 | (September 10, |
| |62-10 |2015) | | |2015) |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Committee Reference: HEALTH
SUMMARY: Revises provisions of law governing community food
producers or gleaners by allowing them to sell whole uncut
fruits or vegetables, or unrefrigerated shell eggs, directly to
a permitted food facility, not just a restaurant, and limits the
ability of a local environmental health officer to require
community food producers or gleaners to register with the local
enforcement entity only if the food producers or gleaners do not
meet certain conditions.
The Senate amendments:
1)Eliminate the ability of a local jurisdiction to adopt an
ordinance prohibiting a community food producer or gleaner
from selling or providing whole uncut fruits or vegetables, or
unrefrigerated shell eggs, directly to the public or to food
facilities.
AB 234
Page 2
2)Restrict the ability of a local health enforcement agency to
require a community food producer to be registered with the
local enforcement agency, unless otherwise authorized by a
locally adopted ordinance, by prohibiting registration if the
community food producer does not meet any of the following
conditions:
a) Produce is sold on the premises controlled by the
community food producer;
b) Produce is donated to a food bank or food kitchen that
is registered or permitted by a federal, state, or local
health agency; or
c) Produce is sold in a food facility permitted by a
federal, state, or local health agency.
3)Specify conditions under which a gleaner may sell directly to
the public or donate to a food bank without requiring
registration with the local health enforcement agency.
4)Incorporate amendments to Health and Safety Code Section
113789 proposed by this bill, AB 226 (Atkins) of the current
legislative session, and AB 143 (Wood), Chapter 164, Statutes
of 2015, which was recently signed by the Governor.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY, this bill expanded from "restaurant"
to the more general "food facility" the type of facility to
which a community food producer (CFP) or gleaner can sell
fruits, vegetables, or eggs.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
AB 234
Page 3
COMMENTS: According to the author, the local agriculture
movement is experiencing burgeoning popularity, and California
has become a trailblazer in progressive food and farm
legislation. Additionally, there has been a dramatic growth in
a wide range of community and urban gardens, as well as locally
produced food, throughout the past decade. These small
production sites include personal gardens, culinary gardens,
community gardens, and school gardens. This bill expands on
efforts in recent years to allow gleaners and CFPs to engage in
direct sales of produce to the public. The author states that
this bill is responsive to the Governor's veto message. By
striking the word "restaurant" and replacing it with "food
facility," this bill ensures explicit clarification as to what
entities CFPs are allowed to sell or provide whole uncut fruit,
vegetables or unrefrigerated shell eggs to.
Last year, AB 1990 (Gordon), Chapter 580, Statutes of 2014,
defines "CFPs" and "gleaners," and allows CFPs or gleaners to
sell or provide whole uncut fruits or vegetables or
unrefrigerated shell eggs, directly to the public, to a
permitted restaurant, or to a cottage food operation, if the CFP
complies with a variety of health and safety requirements or
Best Management Practices established by CDFA and posted on
their Web site. Upon signing AB 1990 in September 2014, Governor
Brown issued the following signing statement: "There is some
concern that AB 1990 would inadvertently limit the existing
paths for producers and gleaners to sell locally. This is not my
intent. The language in this bill is clearly expansive, not
restrictive."
This bill would allow a CFP to sell their product directly to
any type of food facility, instead of just restaurants. This
would include public and private school cafeterias, some
licensed health care facilities, commissaries, mobile food
facilities, mobile support units, and temporary food facilities.
AB 234
Page 4
The California Association of Environmental Health
Administrators, sponsor of the bill, supports this work as a
continued effort to facilitate access to healthy foods like
fresh fruit and vegetables for all Californians. They state
that in 2012, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) legislation
AB 224 (Gordon), Chapter 404, Statutes of 2013, provided the
platform to clarify the regulation of "community gardens and
community supported agriculture" from a food safety perspective.
Then, the statewide approach in AB 1990 promoted safe community
food while recognizing local land use and zoning authority. By
adhering to local land use zoning requirements, it reduced
demands on local governments to adopt a patchwork quilt of
individual local ordinances. It provided a statewide set of
best management practices consistent with recently enacted
cottage food law, AB 1616 (Gatto), Chapter 415, Statutes of
2012, and CSA laws. To remedy this limitation, this bill will
explicitly allow all community food produced in compliance with
these best management practices to be sold at all retail food
facilities by striking the word "restaurant" and replacing it
with "food facility".
The Association of California Egg Farmers opposes this bill
unless all reference to "unrefrigerated shell eggs" is removed
from this bill. They believe that this bill does not adequately
ensure that food safety standards are met for eggs. They argue
that under this legislation, eggs contaminated with Salmonella
could easily make hundreds, maybe thousands, of Californians
sick in just one week.
Analysis Prepared by:Dharia McGrew / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097
FN: 0002267
AB 234
Page 5