The latest rounds of bills to make it off Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk have covered a range of topics. One of those measures offers landowners incentives for growing cover crops, cereal grains, grasses or pollinator plants to provide waterfowl nesting habitat. The bill gained broad agricultural support.
Another measure adds to a 2020 bill requiring employers to immediately notify employees and county public health departments of COVID-19 outbreaks. The new bill initially would have made that information public. But subsequent amendments dropped that provision, to the frustration of labor proponents. Business groups dropped their opposition.
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Newsom also signed a bill standardizing testing at animal health and food safety facilities across the state to improve accuracy. Livestock groups supported the measure.
“This legislation will ensure that California’s veterinary labs avoid diagnostic defects that could disrupt our cattle herds, food-supply chain and trade relations,” said Kirk Wilbur, vice president of government affairs for the California Cattlemen’s Association.
