BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
Senator Cathleen Galgiani, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1811 Hearing Date: 6/21/16
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|Author: |Dodd |
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|Version: |5/27/16 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Anne Megaro |
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Subject: Fertilizer: organic input material: registration:
inspections
SUMMARY :
This bill would authorize the California Department of Food and
Agriculture (CDFA) to develop a new schedule for organic input
material label registrations; authorize provisional label
registrations, as specified; prioritize inspections for
high-risk products and manufacturers; and authorize CDFA to
determine whether a fertilizer material is mislabeled, as
specified.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING
LAW :
The Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program within CDFA was
created to ensure that fertilizer materials are safe and meet
the quality and quantity as guaranteed on the product's label.
This program is responsible for licensing manufacturers,
reviewing and registering product labels, conducting
inspections, and providing research and education regarding the
safe use and handling of fertilizing material.
Existing law:
AB 1811 (Dodd) Page 2 of ?
1) Requires CDFA to enforce laws and adopt regulations
relating to the manufacture, labeling, and distribution of
fertilizing materials.
2) Defines "organic input material," or OIM, to mean any
bulk or packaged commercial fertilizer, agricultural
mineral, auxiliary soil and plant substance, specialty
fertilizer, or soil amendment, excluding pesticides, that
is used in organic crop and food production that complies
with the National Organic Program standards.
3) Requires every manufacturer or distributor of
fertilizing materials to obtain a license from CDFA. All
licenses are renewed in January of each odd-numbered year
and are valid for two years.
4) Requires fertilizing material label registration for
each differing product, such as changes in the guaranteed
analysis or derivation statement. All registrations are
renewed in January of an even-numbered year and are valid
for two years.
5) Establishes licensing and registration fees.
6) Authorizes CDFA to inspect OIM manufacturers at least
once per year.
7) Authorizes CDFA to cancel an existing registration or
refuse to register any fertilizer material which the
secretary determines to be detrimental or harmful to
plants, animals, public safety, or the environment, or for
any product that contains false or misleading claims.
8) Authorizes CDFA to collect an assessment fee not to
exceed $0.002 per dollar of sales of all fertilizing
materials.
9) Authorizes CDFA to inspect, sample, and analyze
fertilizing materials and to conduct investigations
concerning the use, sale, adulteration, or misbranding of
any substance.
PROPOSED
LAW :
AB 1811 (Dodd) Page 3 of ?
This bill:
1) Allows for a provisional registration of a label for
organic input materials or fertilizers during the
registration renewal process while labels are being
corrected and reprinted.
2) Authorizes CDFA to develop a schedule for all label
registrations and renewals, which shall be valid for two
years.
3) Expands CDFA's authority to conduct inspections by
removing the requirement that organic input material
manufacturers be inspected annually during the registration
process and, instead, requires CDFA to give priority to
inspecting high-risk products and manufacturers.
4) Authorizes CDFA, rather than the National Organic
Program, to approve third-party inspectors for out-of-state
organic input material manufacturers.
5) Authorizes CDFA to grant a provisional registration for
a maximum of six months for a registered product undergoing
renewal.
6) Authorizes CDFA to make a determination whether or not a
fertilizing material is being distributed under the name of
another fertilizing material.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT:
According to the author, "AB 1811 will conform the Department's
inspections of OIM manufacturers to NOP while not limiting the
Department's ability to inspect any OIM manufacturer on a
discretionary basis, at the same time, providing increased
fiscal equity between OIM and non-organic fertilizer programs.
Further, AB 1811 will provide fertilizer manufacturers the
ability to conduct business during their license renewal
periods."
COMMENTS :
Need for this bill. This bill would address several concerns
regarding organic input material fertilizers, such as changing
registration renewal dates to ease workload on departmental
AB 1811 (Dodd) Page 4 of ?
staff, authorizing CDFA to inspect high-risk products and
manufacturers more often, allowing manufacturers to sell product
while the label is undergoing renewal, and authorizing CDFA to
make a determination on an individual basis whether a
fertilizing material requires a new label.
Registration renewal schedule. Currently, all fertilizing
materials must renew label registrations on the same day
(January 1st of the odd-numbered year). In order to approve a
label registration, CDFA must ensure that all claims, submitted
data, and other information is valid. If scientific evaluation
is required, a CDFA senior environmental scientist reviews the
data, performs an environmental assessment, and consults with
outside experts. After this process, the label may be approved.
Given that all label registrations are due on the same date,
this bill would allow CDFA to develop a new schedule to change
registration renewal dates to ease workload on departmental
staff.
Inspections. Currently, CDFA is required to inspect every OIM
manufacturer at least once per year. Given budget constraints,
CDFA has had to use alternative, non-OIM sources of funding to
complete this task. Suggestions to raise the fee structure on
OIM manufacturers to fully cover this cost have been met with
concerns that higher fees would be too burdensome for smaller
OIM manufacturers. Therefore, this bill would authorize CDFA
to, instead, inspect OIM manufacturers based on high-risk
factors, such as nitrogen content, while reserving the ability
for CDFA to inspect all OIM manufacturers as needed.
Nitrogen is a highly valuable resource and, as such, is at risk
for adulteration in fertilizing materials. In fact, the strict
inspection requirements on OIM products are the result of an
investigation that discovered an organic manufacturer illegally
using non-organic/synthetic materials in an OIM product. If an
OIM were adulterated with non-organic nitrogen, an organic
producer unknowingly using this non-organic product would be at
risk of losing organic certification. Furthermore, the federal
USDA National Organic Program (NOP) requires that only OIM
products with a 3% or greater nitrogen content be inspected.
Thus, this bill conforms state law with NOP standards but
maintains CDFA's discretion to inspect any OIM manufacturer.
Is a new label necessary? Concerns have been raised by some
organic fertilizer manufacturers that a new label is required
for a product because the organic input material changed but did
AB 1811 (Dodd) Page 5 of ?
not change the N-P-K values for the final product. For
instance, if chicken feathers are replaced by turkey feathers
and the N-P-K values are consistent, should a new label be
required? This bill would authorize CDFA to make determinations
such as these on an individual basis.
RELATED
LEGISLATION :
AB 2511 (Levine) of 2016. Would clarify that "biochar" is a
soil amendment that is included in the definition of "auxiliary
soil and plant substance" and therefore subject to licensing and
labeling laws; and would define "biochar" to mean materials
derived from thermochemical conversion of biomass in an
oxygen-limited environment containing at least 60 percent
carbon." Currently in the Senate Committee on Agriculture.
AB 856 (Caballero), Chapter 257, Statutes of 2009. Establishes
the organic input material manufacturers' licensure program,
increases fees and penalties, and makes other various changes
regarding fertilizer materials, inspections, and labeling.
PRIOR
ACTIONS :
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|Assembly Floor: |79 - 0 |
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|Assembly Appropriations Committee: |20 - 0 |
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|Assembly Agriculture Committee: | 9 - 0 |
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SUPPORT :
California Certified Organic Farmers
La Rocca Vineyards
True Organic Fertilizers
OPPOSITION :
AB 1811 (Dodd) Page 6 of ?
None received
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