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