Government Regulations
This is a new area of expertise for most farm management companies. There are three legistative regulations that have been enacted that have been affecting farmers for the past five years.
Food Safety Act
We currently have 100% of our growers signed up and certified with the GAP Program; this is a must if you are going to market your fruit to the professional packinghouses. GAP Certification is a lot of tedious paperwork that is required once a year. We do this for you, keeping you updated and approved with the USDA and maintaining your files which is what the law demands. Our in office staff takes care of this and we have the experience to get the job done efficiently and correctly.
Irrigated Lands Act
This is a set of regulations that require a once a year audit and paperwork to ensure our owners are being a good steward to the soil on the ranch, tracking runoff, efficient fertilizer programs and maintaining of required farming records where the CDFA can access and audit it. This is a must and there are non-compliance penalties at $500 per acre per day if you are not signed up and qualified under this act.
ACP Programs
This is the program enacted to control the Asian Citrus Psyllid and all counties differ on their individual requirements. You must keep track of the records as far as what your normal spray program is for the grove and if you are moving fruit to various Packinghouses. Our company handles your specific requirements which is a whole separate program.
We handle these regulations on an individual basis for our growers and there is a charge for each individual process, but because of our size we can keep costs down by being efficient. Not completing any one of these programs could cause you to lose the ability to send your fruit to a packinhouse. I am sure, as with everything with the federal government, there will be more regulations and changes to these existing processes to keep up with! We pride ourselves with keeping up to date on all government programs, requirements and rules that are on the table so we can try to be proactive with either our local government to speak to it, or to educate ourselves to the processes we will be required to deal with.
Food Safety Act
We currently have 100% of our growers signed up and certified with the GAP Program; this is a must if you are going to market your fruit to the professional packinghouses. GAP Certification is a lot of tedious paperwork that is required once a year. We do this for you, keeping you updated and approved with the USDA and maintaining your files which is what the law demands. Our in office staff takes care of this and we have the experience to get the job done efficiently and correctly.
Irrigated Lands Act
This is a set of regulations that require a once a year audit and paperwork to ensure our owners are being a good steward to the soil on the ranch, tracking runoff, efficient fertilizer programs and maintaining of required farming records where the CDFA can access and audit it. This is a must and there are non-compliance penalties at $500 per acre per day if you are not signed up and qualified under this act.
ACP Programs
This is the program enacted to control the Asian Citrus Psyllid and all counties differ on their individual requirements. You must keep track of the records as far as what your normal spray program is for the grove and if you are moving fruit to various Packinghouses. Our company handles your specific requirements which is a whole separate program.
We handle these regulations on an individual basis for our growers and there is a charge for each individual process, but because of our size we can keep costs down by being efficient. Not completing any one of these programs could cause you to lose the ability to send your fruit to a packinhouse. I am sure, as with everything with the federal government, there will be more regulations and changes to these existing processes to keep up with! We pride ourselves with keeping up to date on all government programs, requirements and rules that are on the table so we can try to be proactive with either our local government to speak to it, or to educate ourselves to the processes we will be required to deal with.