Posted October 3, 2013
 
California Governor, Jerry Brown recently signed three bills to expand access to fresh, locally-grown food, as Sacramento celebrated “Farm to Fork Week” according to a Sierra Sun Times article, available here.
 
Governor Brown said, “This farm to fork legislation expands access to fresh, local produce and will help make our communities healthier.”
 
The bills include:
 
AB 224, by Assembly member Richard S. Gordon (D-Menlo Park), establishes health and safety standard for community-supported agricultural. 
 
AB 551, by Assembly member Philip Y. Ting (D-San Francisco), allows cities and counties to establish Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones, helping to encourage owners of undeveloped property to use their land for urban farming. 
 
AB 654, by Assembly member Isadore Hall III (D-Compton), which extends the sunset date for the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s certified farmers’ market program to Jan. 1, 2018.
 
Governor Brown has been a long-time advocate of local food, signing the Direct Marketing Act in 1978, which allowed farmers to sell food directly to consumers, according to a U-T San Diego article available here.

 

For more information on legal issues related to local food systems, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.  For State-Specific Direct Marketing Guides, a research publication by the National Agricultural Law Center is available here.
 
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