BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1810
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1810 (Levine)
As Amended March 29, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Agriculture |8-1 |Dodd, Mathis, Eggman, |Gray |
| | |Gallagher, Irwin, | |
| | |Jones-Sawyer, Quirk, | |
| | |Salas | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |14-2 |Gonzalez, Bloom, |Bigelow, Chang |
| | |Bonilla, Bonta, | |
| | |Calderon, Daly, | |
| | |Eggman, Gallagher, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Roger Hernández, | |
| | |Obernolte, Quirk, | |
| | |Santiago, Wagner, | |
| | |Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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AB 1810
Page 2
SUMMARY: Adds new legislative findings, definitions and
exemptions to the California Seed Law (CSL), pertaining to seed
libraries; and makes technical changes. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Defines "sell" to mean to offer, expose, or possess for sale,
and to commercially exchange, barter, or trade.
2)Adds to the legislative findings that the California Seed Law
(CSL) is not intended to regulate noncommercial seed sharing,
including through seed libraries, seed exchanges, or other
informal or formal noncommercial seed sharing activities.
3)Exempts from penalties anyone collecting, storing, or
distributing any labeled or unlabeled agricultural, flower, or
vegetable seed for noncommercial purposes.
4)Exempts from CSL the following activities including seed
distributed through formal or informal noncommercial seed
sharing activities, including, but not limited to, seed
libraries and seed exchanges.
5)Exempts noncommercial seed sharing from the following
violations of CSL:
a) The shipping or sale of seed without a germination test;
b) The shipping or sale of mislabeled seed or seed
containing excessive weed seed; and,
AB 1810
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c) The shipping of unlabeled seed.
6)Makes various technical and non-substantial changes.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill will likely have minor and absorbable costs
to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) for:
1) Efforts to ensure newly exempted entities are trading,
bartering, or exchanging seeds in a noncommercial manner; and 2)
A reduction in fee collections as some firms claim
non-commercial status.
COMMENTS: According to the author, seed libraries provide
communities with free heirloom seeds, thereby empowering people
to grow affordable healthy food, preserve culturally significant
seed and adapt seed to local conditions. There are 450 seed
libraries in the United States with 38 of those in California.
Further, the author believes CSL is intended to regulate seed
sold to large scale agri-business, and that the testing and
labeling requirements are burdensome and not feasible for
community based seed sharing.
CSL was enacted in 1967 to ensure that agricultural seed is
properly and accurately identified on the product label. Seed
is analyzed through the Seed Services program, and administered
by CDFA. Purity of seed is a critical factor in preventing the
unwanted spread of diseases, noxious and invasive weeds. The
CSL is locally enforced by county agricultural commissioners.
Funding for this program is through industry seed assessments
and registration fees, and is administered by CDFA. Every
labeler of agricultural seed offered for sale in California, or
any person who sells that seed in this state, must annually
register as a seed labeler and pay an annual fee of $40. In
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addition, those who are registered seed labelers must also pay
an assessment capped at $0.40 per $100 gross annual dollar
volume sales. CDFA determines the rate of assessment, not to
exceed CDFA's cost of carrying out these provisions.
See policy analysis for a more detailed analysis.
Analysis Prepared by:
Jim Collin / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084 FN: 0002770