Under the supervision of the Senior Environmental Scientist (Supervisory), the incumbent will conduct environmental health inspections of facilities housing egg-laying hens, calves raised for veal, and breeding pigs to ensure conformance with confinement standards; gather scientific data on food-animal housing and confinement systems; research and investigate complaints or incidents of farm animal cruelty due to improper housing and care, as well as misbranded products from noncompliant sources; provide analytical expertise and reports on specific livestock confinement parameters on egg-laying farms, pig breeding facilities, and veal calf production operations; and conduct inspections and audits of handlers, distributors and retailers for traceable records of shipments from compliant sources. The Environmental Scientist (ES) will enforce complex environmental health and safety laws and regulations, and execute policies and procedures to improve environmental health, the humane confinement and care of food-producing animals, and the sustainability of California agriculture.
• Conduct inspections of animal production and distribution facilities for compliance with all applicable state animal care confinement, certification, and registration requirements necessary for distribution of covered animal products (shell eggs, liquid eggs, veal meat and pork meat) in both intra- an interstate commerce.
• Conduct on-site audits of California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) accredited third-party certifiers to ensure conformance of producer and/or distributor certification activities with requirements of the California Code of Regulations.