By WES SANDER

Capital Press

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed several agriculture-related bills into law. They include:

* SB1142, by Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, which aims to expand the sources of grant money that the state can use to preserve farmland through easements.

The bill allows the state to buy farmland-conservation easements that also require some environmental aim, like preservation of wildlife habitat. The state currently buys easements through its California Farmland Conservancy Program Fund, which requires that farming activity remain unimpeded by the easement.

By expanding its efforts to include agricultural and environmental protections together -- allowing farm activity to be impeded in limited ways -- the Department of Conservation can access a larger variety of grant funding that can help protect farmland from development.

* SB1303 by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, which extends through January 2014 a provision under the California Endangered Species Act that exempts farmers from penalties if their normal agricultural activities kill protected species. The rule was set to expire on Jan. 1.

* AB2686 by Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, which shortens the legal process by which county agricultural commissioners could enforce organic-produce standards. The bill attracted no opposition, sailing through the capitol on unanimous votes.

* AB2240, by the Assembly agriculture committee, authorizes the agriculture department to rework the schedule by which licensing fees are levied on processors of farm products.

Higher fees are needed because increasing costs have caused the department's Market Enforcement Branch to run deficits, according to an Assembly analysis. The restructuring is based on current operating costs, and the agriculture secretary could appoint a committee to advise the process.

* AB2530 by Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, temporarily reworks the terms of farm-preservation contracts under the Williamson Act.

With the program unfunded in the current year and expected to remain so in the coming year, counties are left without the subvention money that partially compensates the tax revenue they lose by signing contracts with landowners. By temporarily increasing the value of contracted farmland, the bill can restore about half of the revenue counties lost.

when Shwarzenegger cut their subvention funding in 2009.