AB 865: Sale of agricultural products: requirements for sale.

(1)Existing law, effective January 1, 2023, law requires all California state-owned or state-run institutions, except segments of public postsecondary education or local educational agencies, as defined, that purchases agricultural food products to implement necessary practices to achieve a goal of ensuring that at least 60% of the agricultural food products that it purchases in a calendar year are grown or produced in the state by December 31, 2025. Existing law establishes within the Department of Food and Agriculture a public and private collaboration known as the Buy California Program to encourage consumer nutritional and food awareness and to foster purchases of high-quality California agricultural products.

This bill would require a grower or producer that sells an agricultural product bell peppers, blueberries, dates, honeydew melons, lemons, olives, or table grapes to a distributor, as defined, to attest to the distributor under penalty of perjury, using a self-attestation form developed by the department, whether the agricultural product was produced in compliance with specified California health and environmental protection laws and specified California labor laws, as defined. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. The

The bill would require a distributor that sells an one of those agricultural product products to a retailer with more than one retail location to provide to the retailer the self-attestation form received from a grower or producer. The bill would prohibit a distributor from selling the agricultural products to these retailers if the self-attestation form provided to the distributor is incomplete or indicates that the agricultural products were not produced in compliance with the above-described laws. The bill would provide that a violation of these provisions is subject to a $500 civil penalty for each violation.

The bill would require the department to adopt regulations to administer and enforce these requirements, as specified. The bill would prohibit the department from imposing additional fees on growers or producers to meet the requirements of this bill.

(2)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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.