California Department of Food and Agriculture
cabinet-level agency in the government of California
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is a cabinet-level agency in the government of California. Established in 1919 by the California State Legislature and signed into law by Governor William Stephens, the Department of Food and Agriculture is responsible for ensuring the state's food safety, the protection of the state's agriculture from invasive species, and promoting the California agricultural industry.
The Department of Food and Agriculture maintains district and field offices in 32 counties across the state, and two extraterritorial offices in Hawaii and Arizona. This includes agricultural inspection stations at the state's borders. The California State Board of Food and Agriculture is an advisory board to the governor and secretary.
As of January 2019, the Secretary of Agriculture was Karen Ross, who is a member of Governor Gavin Newsom's cabinet, having originally been appointed to that post by Governor Jerry Brown in January, 2011. As a cabinet-level agency, the Secretary reports directly to the Governor.
Divisions
The Department of Food and Agriculture is internally divided into seven administration divisions, carrying out state food safety and regulation policy:
The Animal Health and Food Safety Services (AHFSS) provides services to protect California's poultry and livestock, to ensure safety of food from animal origin, to protect public health, and to protect livestock owners against losses due to theft and of animals or straying.
The Division of Fairs & Expositions (F&E) provides fiscal and policy oversight of the network of California's 78 fairs and manages the use of available funding and other services.
The Inspection Services Division (IS) states their mission is to "provide professional services that support and contribute to a safe, abundant, quality food supply; environmentally sound agricultural practices; and an equitable marketplace for California agriculture," and states:
We fulfill this mission by providing the following services: Inspect fruits, vegetables and nuts to ensure maturity, grade, size, weight, packaging and labeling meet the consumers' quality expectations.
The public source identifies “California Department of Food and Agriculture” as cabinet-level agency in the government of California. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around California, Department and Food.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5020425. VIAF identifies the subject as 149541697. The Library of Congress control number is n81014032. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 2019 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “California Department of Food and Agriculture” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.