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CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY URGES FED AGRICULTURE SUPPORT
 
SACRAMENTO - Joint Resolution 69 has been introduced in the California State Assembly - a bi-partisan piece of legislation that calls upon the US Congress to pass House Resolution 3242, which would deliver about $180 million in federal funding to help support California's food safety, security, nutrition and education programs.
 
Conversion of California's farm and ranch lands for non-farm use has contributed to the state's increased dependence upon imported food, said a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), which helped draft the joint resolution.
 
About 3.7 million acres - more than 10% of the state's total farm land - was lost between 1990 and 2003, while the decreased availability of farmlands "has contributed to increased vulnerability to exotic pests and diseases," he said.

According to the CDFA, about 63,527 shipments of prohibited commodities were intercepted and destroyed or shipped back out-of-state by agricultural inspectors in 2002.

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