Non Technical Summary
Food safety education is an important topic that is often overlooked in beginning farmer trainings.Understanding fundamentals of food safety, including assessing microbial risk and identifying bestmanagement practices, is essential for establishing markets that require food safety standards fromtheir buyers and for meeting federal food safety requirements. Food safety may inform keyinfrastructure improvements, equipment purchases, and other management decisions in earlybusiness development for produce farms. For this Community Outreach Program project, wepropose developing food safety curricula and conducting outreach to beginning growers in NewYork State with special emphasis on farmers in Plain Sect (Amish and conservative Mennonite)communities and produce growers in urban areas where tailored and culturally appropriate outreachmaterials are needed. First, we will develop a set of resources to use during general beginningfarmer trainings, including presentation materials and hands-on activity plans. We will offer foodsafety training to beginning Plain growers using an additional curriculum that is based onproduction practices used on Amish farms without technology. For urban growers, we will developa third set of resources and offer workshops to producers in Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, and NewYork City that cover topics of special interest to these growers. An advisory committee consistingof beginning, Plain, and urban growers, and extension educators, will review each set of food safetyresources developed by the team and provide feedback during their creation. Lastly, interviews willbe conducted on farms to evaluate adoption of food safety best management practices as a result ofour trainings and materials.This

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
712	1499	1060	100%

Knowledge Area
712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins;

Subject Of Investigation
1499 - Vegetables, general/other;

Field Of Science
1060 - Biology (whole systems);

Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to deliver specialized food safety educational programming to beginning fruit and vegetable producers with special emphasis on Plain (Amish and Old Order Mennonite) and urban producers.Obj. 1: Develop a general introductory food safety curriculum for beginning growers in NYSWe will create a curriculum that may include slide sets, written/pictorial handouts of SOPs, and hands-on activities to use during beginning farmer trainings by us and for county and regional extension educators. With many new/beginning farmer training programs, farm food safety is often left out. Despite the daunting appearance of this topic for people learning about farming, reducing microbial risk is best learned when taught at this stage of farming.Obj. 2: Adapt existing food safety practice educational material to the needs of Plain and urban beginning growers.2.1. Resources for Plain growers. A team of extension educators will reach out to farmers in the target groups and listen to their thoughts on what food safety practices mean and to evaluate their attitudes, understanding of, and barriers for implementation on their farms. A culturally appropriate curriculum will be developed with input from an advisory committee to use for food safety outreach during meetings and on-farm visits to produce farms within the Plain community.2.2. Resources for urban growers. The project team, with feedback from urban growers in the advisory group, will develop urban grower resources at the necessary cultural and literacy level (including translation and the use of diagram/picture-only materials.Obj. 3: Provide technical assistance to support food safety practice adoption on individual farmsWe will conduct farm and produce auction visits with beginning growers, including Plain and urban farmers, to assess food safety needs, provide personalized farm food safety improvement recommendations, and support on-going follow up with standard operating procedures (SOPs) and practices.Obj. 4: Deliver adapted food safety trainings to produce auction farmers in Plain communitiesFollowing our individual outreach with farms (Obj. 3), we will identify Plain communities in which covered farms are in need of formal FSMA PSR trainings. We will offer two trainings, one in Northern NY and another in Western NY, using materials we developed in our previous FSOP grant and the Penn State Plain Sect FSMA resources (see Previous Work) to deliver the training without technology if desired by the community.Obj. 5: Offer food safety workshops to urban growers on subjects of topical interestBased on needs identified by urban growers and extension educators on our advisory committee, we will offer in-person small group and virtual food safety workshops geared toward urban growers. Topics may include irrigation water management and determining quality of post-harvest water for small-scale efficient wash-pack areas, worker and volunteer training, and pest (rat) management. Neighborhood outreach to help reduce pedestrian/pet intrusion and watch/notification of nighttime congregation of individuals.

Project Methods
Obj. 1: Develop a general introductory food safety curriculum for beginning growers in NYS.We will collaborate with existing county extension programs to widen their scope of outreach (farmer communication, visits, educational training) and launch programs as needed where none exist. Obj. 2: Adapt existing food safety practice educational material to the needs of Plain and urban beginning growers.2.1. Resources for Plain growers. The team will form an advisory committee during curriculum development and following initial implementation. The committee will consist of extension educators and key members of Plain communities (farmers and auction managers). The committee will suggest food safety topics to prioritize for outreach, implementation plans for curricula, evaluation tools for stakeholders, and will provide feedback on initial drafts of the curriculum. The committee members from the Plain community will serve as liaisons/advocates for food safety to help introduce topics and ensure practice adoption and food safety culture persist after project completion.The curricula will consist of learning tools (pen and paper activity sheets, practice outlines, and diagrams) and would cover microbiological food safety principles and SOPs consistent with the FSMA PSR and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).Our team has specifically identified several areas of food safety improvement on Plain farms through our previous work that currently lack learning tools in existing curricula (see Previous Work):Basic recordkeeping for food safety regulatory compliance, including produce salesTraceabilityTraining of working family members, including children and young adultsAssessing water quality for irrigation and post-harvest produce washing and food contact surface cleaningHand washing ABCs and low-cost building of portable hand washing set-upsAnimal intrusion in the field during growing seasonLow cost cleaning and sanitizing wash/pack set-ups2.2. Resources for urban growers. Working with the advisory committee, the project team will look for input and feedback on a food safety curriculum generated for urban growers.In areas including Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica, many beginning urban farmers are English language learners. New Americans in these areas are often refugees representing many different countries and first languages. To reach urban growers who are English language learners, food safety outreach would include educator groups on the ground assisting these growers and we would offer resource materials written in a simple manner with use of visual aids to convey concepts. To build a foundation of food safety knowledge amongst beginning urban growers, we will develop fact sheets, presentations, and workshop materials that emphasize basic food safety best management practices without using technical jargon. In New York City, language is less of an issue but technical assistance would range from outdoor plots to indoor hydroponic/aquaponic and vertical production of greens and herbs. Obj. 3: Provide on-farm and auction technical assistance to support food safety practice adoption on individual farmsThrough farm and auction visits, conversations with growers will give us feedback on their attitudes, concerns, and interest in learning more about food safety. Our approach will include discussions of the co-benefits from food safety actions, such as various improvements in produce quality, introducing efficiencies with production, washing and packing that can save time/labor, and ending up with crops that can be more desirable by buyers once they become aware of the food safety actions followed by the growers.We will visit farms that have participated in our outreach events and engage with the growers to measure changes in adoption of food safety practices. Using one-on-one interviews, we will ask growers the following questions regarding whether they began a particular food safety practice, such as water testing or using a sanitizer in their wash water. If not, we will ask them to identify barriers to adoption, including cost, labor, time, or cultural limitations to adoption. Our interview may consist of the following questions, using water testing as an example:What is your water source for irrigation? For washing/cleaning?Do you feel there are potential contamination risks to your water sources?Is there a water-testing lab or drop-off site close enough to the farm where you can bring water samples?Since our workshop/training, have you begun testing your production water for generic quantitative E. coli?Why or why not?Do you have a better understanding of food safety based on the food safety outreach provided?Have you developed food safety practices for your farm based on the food safety outreach provided?Have you implemented food safety practices on your farm based on the food safety outreach provided?Obj. 4: Deliver adapted food safety trainings to produce auction farmers in Plain communitiesWe will create and deliver basic farm food safety introductory workshops based on selected topics to help beginning Plain growers understand the principles and practices of food safety. There will be farms further along where federal and buyer requirements will dictate the need for them to attend additional trainings. We will deliver adapted Produce Safety Alliance Grower Trainings for auction communities subject to the FSMA PSR, as well as GAPs workshops for beginning growers whose buyers require GAPs certification. Training books and certificates will be offered to participants free of charge. We aim to reach a minimum of 20 growers at each training.Obj. 5: Offer food safety workshops to urban growers on subjects of topical interestWe will work with urban grower leaders and New American beginner farmer support programs to identify the topic areas to cover. Such assistance would include identification of topic areas, mode of outreach/communication (Powerpoints with wording or images, and translation. Topics could include handwashing, portable handwashing units (how to build and maintain), pest management, water issues, produce handling when washing or packing, clean up, reducing risks in hydroponic/aquaponic/vertical CEA including templates for writing farm plans and many more.