2014 Annual Report for ENC12-135
Growing a Network of GAPs Educators in the Upper Midwest
Summary
The overall goal of this project is to train more educators to be GAPs educators and to increase the capacity of educators across the state to meet the needs of farmers in their own communities. We aim to accomplish this by developing curricula and providing in-depth training and information about Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and on-farm food safety practices to educators and other agricultural professionals who work with fruit and vegetable growers in Minnesota and the upper Midwest.
In 2014 this project hosted two two-day training sessions to key agricultural educators and professionals in the region. Each training session included one day of classroom interactive learning about GAPs fundamentals. The second day took place on-site at a nearby farm to provide a participatory experience and a chance to see fundamental applications of food safety practices.
Objectives/Performance Targets
The major objectives and performance targets of this project for 2014 include the following:
1. Learning Objectives
1. Extension educators and other ag educators are able to answer questions to community members and do 1 or 1.5 hour workshop on basic GAPs concepts.
2. Extension educators and other ag educators know where/who GAPs resources are and how to connect farmers to them.
3. Extension educators and other ag educators help overcome constraints to farmers implementing GAPs on their farms and writing food safety plans and help them prioritize.
2. Advisory Group was formed and includes farmers, agriculture professionals, Extension Educators, and Latino and Hmong agriculture professionals and farmers. The AG helped to develop goals, evaluation tools, outcomes and training activities and provided feedback and guidance to the project.
3. Two 2-day hands-on GAPs train-the-trainer workshops were developed and implemented for agricultural professionals and Extension educators in the Upper Midwest. Educators participated in an intensive learning workshop on day 1 and were provided with tailored educational materials that they can then use with farmer constituents in their regions. Day 2 included hands-on learning at a nearby farm to see how farmers implement food safety and what sort of questions arise. In 2014 the workshops were be offered in the following regions of the state: Southern Minnesota (April 2014) for Extension Educators (n=24), Northwest Minnesota, includes ND and SD (October 2014) – non-profit, State Health Improvement Program (SHIP) and agency personnel (n=17).
4. Materials and food safety content: Project team adapted their existing farmer specific materials and materials from other states and state and federal agencies, tailoring them to Upper Midwest-specific educator audiences to reflect the typical cultural growing practices, vegetables and fruits grown, and environmental situations.
Workshop content included:
Good Agricultural Practices. Background, epidemiology, governance and legislation updates, and in-depth coverage of the practices.
Risk assessment and decision making. Discussion covered the ecology of pathogens, food safety risk factors on a farm, how to develop a framework for risk control, and decision-making tools to determine the most economically feasible risk reduction practices.
Identification of common hazards and risks for the region. While the hazards are the same throughout the US, local and regional variation exists and need to be considered when discussing manure and compost, irrigation water, washing and processing water, and wildlife and pest intrusions. Handwashing and worker health and hygiene, packinghouse and equipment cleanliness were covered. The available science behind the risk management guidance was provided.
Writing a food safety plan. Participants learned the purpose and benefits and practical aspects of creating individualized farm food safety plan. Examples and templates were provided.
Supplemental training materials. For participants who may be doing group teaching we provided instruction on adult learning styles and cultural teaching considerations when teaching immigrant and minority growers, how to facilitate a food safety workshop, and provide sample workshop agendas, PowerPoint slide sets, and resource lists.
Accomplishments/Milestones
1. An advisory board of key farmers and partners was created in Feb 2014 to help guide the project. Members include:
- Atina Diffley, Organic farmer and consultant
- Sandy and Lonny Dietz, Whitewater Gardens
- John Mesko, Sustainable Farming Association
- Josh Reinitz, East Henderson Farm
- Janaki Fisher Merritt, Food Farm
- Hli Xyooj, Farmers’ Legal Action Group
All members were present on a group conference call in March 2014, where they gave feedback on workshop design, recruitment and the workshop agenda and participatory exercises. After the call, the team continued to communicate with the members via email and phone to ask questions and for feedback on session design and ideas.
In addition to the advisory board, key partners in MN and ND Extension were consulted to help with participant recruitment and to plan the workshop. These connections were critical to ensure Extension employees understood the importance of GAPs and to tie it into their own training and educational goals.
2. Each 2-day workshop also had a Moodle online learning component. The online platform was used before, during and after the workshop to complement the in-person learning. One week prior to the workshop, each participant was set up with a Moodle account. Each participant was asked to introduce themselves electronically to the group and then take a 10 question quiz to determine their level of knowledge about GAPs. This homework allowed the team tailor the information to the needs and level of understanding of the participants, and got the participants thinking about the topic area prior to the workshop.
The platform was also used for information sharing: the team posted all supporting food safety materials on the Moodle site 1 week prior to the workshop. Participants had access before, during and after the workshop to the Moodle site, which served as one place where background food safety information, factsheets, published studies, videos, and USDA audit information could be found. Each participant continues to have access to these materials, as well as the jump drive and binder of materials that were handed out at the workshops.
3. The following materials were handed out to all participants at each workshop. Material was put into a binder for each participant.
- Farm Risk Assessment Matrix
- Cornell University Decision Tree summary
- How to Write an SOP
- USDA list of SOPs
- USDA audit checklist
- Summary of Food Safety Modernization Act
- Food Safety Fact Sheets (5, full color)
- 1 Food safety jump drive with food safety plan template, videos and supporting documentation
- 1 Employee training DVD. Fruits, Vegetables, and Food Safety: Health and Hygiene on the Farm, Cornell University (English/Spanish)
4. Workshops
Workshop 1. April 30 and May 1, 2014 Mankato, MN 24 participants: Extension employees, agricultural non profit attorneys, backyard garden and community garden coordinator, food hub employees, and other non profit and agricultural educators
Day 1 of the workshop was held in Le Sueur, MN at an Extension owned facility.
- Participants learned GAPs fundamentals via a PPT that was tailored to provide the information they needed to have a firm grasp of food safety concepts, current regulatory framework and best on-farm practices
- Participants broke into small groups throughout the day to encourage active and participatory learning. They developed a short program that they could use to teach farmers about a food safety concept (which the groups presented to the larger group), and then brainstorming questions that a farmer would ask and what potential answers would be.
Day 2 of the workshop was held at East Henderson farm in Henderson, MN.
- Participants toured the farm and heard from Josh Reinitz, the owner. East Henderson is a diverse vegetable operation with chicken, hogs and horses that sells through CSA and wholesale and co-ops in the Twin Cities.
- Activities included writing a risk assessment for the farm and writing an SOP on a particular process at the farm. General discussion at the end included sharing information on how the educators will share the information with their farmer clients, what sort and what length of workshops will be most useful, and common questions that may arise from farmers
Workshop 2. October 22 and Oct 23, 2014 Fargo ND. 17 Participants: Extension staff from Minnesota and North Dakota, registered dieticians and other staff from food hub, farmer/educators, and other agricultural educators in the region
Day 1 of the workshop was held on the campus of North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND.
- Day 1 of the workshop mirrored the content delivered during Day 1 of the first workshop.
Day 2 was held at Hugh’s Gardens in Halstad, MN, an organic wholesale potato growing and aggregation operation.
- Participants toured the potato storage and washing facility for Hugh’s Gardens and heard from Hugh about the food safety challenges, issues and practices he takes with his business.
- Activities included writing a risk assessment for his operation and writing an SOP on the processes they had seen in his potato storage and washing operation. There was significant discussion about food safety particular to potatoes, which is appropriate given the large number of potato growing operations in the region.
Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes
General evaluation questions about the usefulness of various aspects of the course including content, site, and classroom and farm activity components were asked and all respondents stated there were “very useful” or “useful.” Other options were “somewhat useful” and “not useful” and there were no responses in those categories.
Pre- and post-test questions were asked of participants confidence in their ability to help a farmer write a food safety plan, conduct an on-farm food safety self-audit, teach a short GAPs course, answer basic GAPs questions from a farmer, or help a farmer prepare for an audit. The questions were Likert scale 1 to 5, with 1 being not confident to 5 being very confident. Participant confidence increased in all areas and was the greatest in their ability to teach a short GAPs workshop or lead a course from a mean of 1.90 to a mean of 3.80 (See Table 1).
Two months after workshops we followed up with participants to see if and how they had applied the GAPs training in their work. A few people stated no formal interaction, “just informal conversations” or providing fact sheets or forms to farmers. Examples of what other educators had done two months after the workshop were: helping a grower complete a food safety plan and prepare for a GAPs audit; gave short GAPs presentations to master gardeners; gave a short GAPs presentation to a group of farmers; held in-depth conversations with a grower about packshed designs; provided hands-on assistance on writing food safety plans; and farm walk-throughs with growers.
Of course there are always areas where we can improve and we included evaluation questions for future or missed topics and suggestions for improvement. We made changes from the first workshop to the second and continue to tweak our content delivery, group activities, and mix of farm and classroom time. Some suggestions we have no control over, such as “better weather.”
Following are a few unsolicited comments that came after the workshops from other educators and ag professionals:
“The workshop was excellent. The second day helped reinforce so many concepts and gave me ideas too. I also realize I need a better understanding of how food safety risks lead to outbreaks in order to do so. I am excited to keep learning from the two of you!”
“I just wanted to thank you both for the great training last week. I have to say it was probably one of the best workshops I’ve been to for anything. Coming into the workshop without much knowledge I though the first day with all of the activities and information presented was superb. I learned so much and then to have the opportunity to apply it the next day was even better. I feel confident I could answer questions posed or know where to go to look for the answer. I really appreciate both of your hard work.”
“Thank you so much for doing a wonderful job with the training. Your team given us a great foundation of education for our future endeavors in GAP training.”
Finally, we had two unanticipated outcomes that related to the work of this project.
An attendee at the Mankato workshop, an Extension employee in the Mankato region office, provided extensive food safety guidance to a large local wholesale produce farm in the summer of 2014, preparing them for a USDA audit. "My thanks again Michele and Annalisa. Your course helped me and I was then able to support [the farm owners] with their first audit." This farm then volunteered to host an on-farm GAPs workshop and because of the work of this team (planned for June 2015).
The project team connected Hugh Dufner, owner and operator of Hugh’s Garden and host for day 2 of the second workshop with the Farm to School coordinator at Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). MPS received samples from Hugh and decided to buy his #2 organic potatoes in Feb 2015 for their food service program. MPS had been looking for a local supplier of organic potatoes who also had completed food safety training.