Bill Text: CA AB1067 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: State nut: almond, walnut, pistachio, and pecan.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-07-10 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 49, Statutes of 2017. [AB1067 Detail]
Download: California-2017-AB1067-Chaptered.html
| Assembly Bill No. 1067 |
| CHAPTER 49 |
An act to add Section 422.3 to the Government Code, relating to state emblems.
[
Approved by
Governor
July 10, 2017.
Filed with
Secretary of State
July 10, 2017.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1067, Gray.
State nut: almond, walnut, pistachio, and pecan.
Existing law declares the official state animal, rock, mineral, grass, insect, bird, and marine fish, among other things.
This bill would make the almond, walnut, pistachio, and pecan each the official state nut.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) The State of California boasts a rich and diverse cultural heritage and has adopted a number of tangible representations of that heritage as official symbols over the years.
(b) California produces more almonds than almost anywhere else. Eight out of every 10 almonds eaten in the world are grown in the state. Almonds are currently the most planted crop in the state due to an international boom in demand. Since 1995, farmers in the state have doubled the amount of agricultural land devoted to almonds to 900,000 acres.
(c) Almonds are a $4 billion dollar industry, with 2.1 billion pounds of almonds produced in 2016. The almond industry has created over 100,000 jobs statewide, 97,000 of which are in the central valley, a region that has traditionally been saddled with high unemployment.
(d) California walnuts account for 99 percent of the commercial United States supply and approximately three-quarters of the world supply, and in 2015 there were an estimated 365,000 acres of walnuts in California.
(e) The walnut was first cultivated in California by the Franciscan
Fathers in the late 1700s.
(f) California produces 98 percent of the pistachios in the United States and is the second largest producer worldwide.
(g) The first California commercial crop of pistachios harvested was in 1976, totaling 1.5 million pounds from 4,350 acres. California now has more than 250,000 acres planted throughout 22 counties producing over 550 million pounds of pistachios per year.
(h) First planted in California in the mid-1970s, in 2016 pecan production in California was over 5
million pounds.
(i) Pecans are the only nut native to the United States, where over 80 percent of the world’s pecans are grown.
