11:15am-11:45am

• Napa County- Gardener’s Certificate already in place
• Sonoma County developing system Certificate online, free
• Good Samaritan law in CA does not cover infected fruit being distributed

• Gleaning should by law, only be done from certified farms. Purpose was to expand on persons who could donate or sell their home owner grown food donated. Petaluma Bounty continues to harvest under “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Infraction unknown.
• CA Dept F + A may show exception to have this regulation. In Lake County, ag. commissioner has never brought this up.
• California Food Policy Association – website has info perhaps
• Petaluma puts tarps down to cover ground under trees and protect falling fruit from germs.
• (Sonoma County Ag Commission) – Sonoma uses an online form that is filled by the homeowner on an annual basis. Fear is that homeowners won’t want to deal with the paperwork and private gleaning sources will dry up.
• Another fear is that potential funders would require that gleaning agencies only harvest certified fruit.
• we need to get clarification of what is really going on regarding regulations in our own counties.
• No one knew of this being an issue before this conference
• Cottage industries law covers individual homeowners to sell what they produce.
• Challenge is to get a head’s up on these regulations so gleaners can not be found unsuspecting.
• Bud – will ask Craig to address this with Village Harvest lawyer and then have Craig communicate those findings to conference attendees.
• Moving small gleaning organizations to act within the urban forest or community movement will require more awareness of existing regulations and development of new regulations that support the goals of our groups. Having a community education as part of your gleaning group will help to build relationships with owners.