California State Capitol Building, Sacramento

The California Food Policy Council (CAFPC)—a collaboration of non-profits and local food policy councils across the state—released their 2016 California Food and Agriculture Legislation Tracker, which identifies and analyzes the outcome of 15 priority state-level bills from the 2016 legislative session. Six of the bills supported by CAFPC have been passed, including AB 1577, which expands a state tax credit to most agricultural producers on food donated to food banks. Other bills that passed include AB 1810, which protects small-scale seed saving and swapping, and AB 1066, which will extend overtime pay after 40 hours of work per week to farmworkers by 2022. Meanwhile, the remaining nine bills selected by CAFPC did not pass, including AB 2782, which would have established a health impact fee on sugar-sweetened beverage distributors to go toward nutrition programs, and SB 1282, which would have required labeling for nursery plants and seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides. View the full scorecard here.