Sacramento-State agriculture officials are downplaying any differences with legislative leaders who have started looking for savings in the department to help ease the California budget crisis, including changes in fertilizer oversight. State Sen. Dean Florez is proposing shifting major duties of the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture to other state or local agencies to recoup as much as $100 million of its $300 million budget by eliminating its executive office; transferring fertilizer, chemical, and pest control work to the Dept. of Pesticide Regulation; and assigning health and animal inspection to state health agencies. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has been working hard to close a $24 billion budget gap, is reported to be opposed to cutting back agriculture. Still, Florez is determined, insisting that “in agriculture, there are business considerations, and there are public health considerations, and we already have agencies that serve both of those functions. Agriculture had its own set of rules on air quality and worker protections for a long time, but we have finally reversed those to protect both the environment and public health. There are certainly more changes in the pipeline to protect the state’s finances.”
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain