SECTIONS 6200-6202 - California Statutes

FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL CODE

SECTION 6200-6202

6200. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California is the leading producer of wine in the United
States, accounting for 72 percent of all wine, foreign and domestic,
consumed in this country.
(b) Winegrapes are grown in virtually every county for processing
by more than 800 wineries located throughout the state.
(c) California grows more than 327,455 acres of winegrapes
producing 2,570,707 tons of grapes per year valued at more than seven
hundred eighteen million dollars ($718,000,000), as of 1990, with a
direct and indirect impact on the state's economy totaling more than
eight billion six hundred million dollars ($8,600,000,000).
(d) Destructive pests and diseases, including phylloxera, pose a
significant and imminent threat to the state's important grape and
wine industry.
(e) Phylloxera has already infested grape acreage in many
California counties, including Napa and Sonoma, resulting in losses
totaling two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000) to growers and the wine
industry.
(f) The state has an interest in protecting its agricultural
products from further destruction by phylloxera and other harmful
pests and diseases.
(g) To avoid a potentially catastrophic loss to one of California'
s most important industries, the Legislature declares that this
chapter is in the interest of the public health and welfare.
(h) The Legislature further declares that it is in the interest of
the public health and welfare that the districts authorized to be
created by this chapter not duplicate existing services already being
provided to grape growers by the University of California
Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor or the county agricultural
commissioners.

6200.5. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the
Winegrape Pest and Disease Control District Law.

6201. It is the purpose of this chapter to make available a
procedure for the organization, operation, government, and
dissolution of districts to respond to, manage, and control the
effects of the spread of the phylloxera pest, and other pests that
attack winegrape plants, and to collect and disseminate to winegrape
producers in the district all relevant information and scientific
studies concerning the pest or pests, as well as to chart and
determine the extent and location of any infestations.
Division 3 (commencing with Section 56000) of Title 5 of the
Government Code does not apply to districts organized pursuant to
this chapter.

6202. Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions in
this section govern the construction of this chapter.
(a) "Board" or "board of directors" means the board of directors
of a district.
(b) "District" means a winegrape pest and disease control district
organized pursuant to this chapter.
(c) "Owner" includes joint owner, coowner, guardian, executor,
administrator, or any other person that holds property in a trust
capacity under court appointment.
(d) "Phylloxera," Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, is an aphid-like pest
in the family of Phylloxeridae that attacks winegrape plants (Vitus
sp.).
(e) "Winegrapes" means grapes produced that are intended to be
converted from their fresh form into grape juice, grape concentrate,
wine, or products thereof, including, but not limited to, high proof
and brandy produced from winegrapes.