On-farm food safety trainings for community supported agriculture, on-farm markets, and agritourism operations

View the project final report

Commodities

• Fruits: apples, berries (strawberries), melons
• Vegetables: asparagus, carrots, celery, eggplant, greens (leafy), greens (lettuces), onions, radishes (culinary), sweet corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes

Practices

• Crop Production: food product quality/safety
• Education and Training: extension, networking, workshop
• Farm Business Management: community-supported agriculture, risk management, value added
• Production Systems: organic agriculture
• Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems

All farmers have a shared goal: to produce safe and nutritious food. Despite best efforts, however, foodborne
illness outbreaks happen and when they do, they can be devastating for the entire agricultural community. With
the recent finalization of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the focus of food safety planning for farmers has
transitioned from reactive to preventive. This means that farmers have both a moral and legal obligation to adopt
comprehensive preventive food safety programs. Given budgetary and personnel constraints, however, food
safety trainings are not offered regularly, can be ineffectively broad in scope, and often do not include crucial
operation-specific details.

This project proposes bringing experts from the Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI), the Maryland
Department of Agriculture, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Agriculture Law
Education Initiative, and the University of Maryland, College Park and Extension together to create specialized
food safety curriculum tailored to three different types of farm-based food businesses: Community Supported
Agriculture, On-Farm Markets, and Agritourism. These materials will be presented at on-farm trainings (during
winter 2017) which will maximize the ability of the presenters to provide operation-specific information and give
Maryland farmers the opportunity to get questions answered for their particular operations. Following the
trainings, the materials will be disseminated via the ALEI website and through recorded webinars. The goal is to
equip farmers with the knowledge they need to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks, reduce health risks and
thereby improve the quality of life of Maryland's agricultural community.

The goal of the project is to improve the quality of life for Maryland’s farmers by reducing the likelihood of foodborne illness outbreaks associated with agriculture. The project will create operation-specific food safety training materials that will be presented to Maryland farmers in the best possible setting: on the farm itself. An operation’s best defense against being the cause of a foodborne illness outbreak is having both a food safety plan customized to their operation and having staff trained and prepared to implement the plan’s procedures. This advance preparation is also a legal requirement for farmers subject to FSMA.

To accomplish this goal, the project will bring Maryland’s food safety experts onto the farm to provide farmers and their staff with food safety education customized for their specific operation (Community Supported Agriculture, On-Farm Market, or Agritourism). Having the experts on-site will allow farm operators and their staff to get answers tailored to their specific operations. The objective is to determine if providing Maryland farmers with customized on-farm food safety trainings will improve food safety planning and compliance with the FSMA Produce Safety Rule, and reduce the likelihood of foodborne illness outbreaks.