Non Technical Summary
Tuskegee University, Alabama A&M University, and Auburn University will develop a value-added curriculum for small, limited resource growers in the Black Belt region. Drawing on the legacy of George Washington Carver, technical information related to cooling, sorting, grading, and packaging will be presented using impactful experiential learning methods. This project builds on two previous bodies of work: 1) the Small-Scale Postharvest Handling Practices: A Manual for Horticultural Crops (5th Edition) from UC Davis to be referenced as the main source of content for the new material development and 2) the 2019 USDA FSOP funded Mobile Farm Innovation Project which is a modern-day Moveable School containing an array of supplies for experiential learning activities. While the 2019 project focused on the intersection of conservation and food safety, this project will focus on minimizing postharvest loss, improving product quality, and food safety. The proposed project also places special emphasis on capacity building within our 1890 and 1862 Land Grant System and Black Belt farming community with opportunities for engagement of the next generation of food safety professionals and farmers at each stage of the project. Additionally, participants in the pilot will be eligible to apply for a separately funded a mini-grant program to directly address resource needs related to food safety, quality, and shelf life extension for beginning and limited resource farmers in the Black Belt.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
712	5010	3020	50%
503	5010	3020	50%

Knowledge Area
712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins; 503 - Quality Maintenance in Storing and Marketing Food Products;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Goals / Objectives
A convergence of factors has led to the need to develop a curriculum to empower small-scale farmers in the regional Black Belt to safely scale up operations and access new markets. In the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic, there is renewed interest from government, producers, and consumers in strengthening local and regional food systems. This has led to a greater number of wholesale and retail market opportunities for farmers in the region. Additionally, climate change and the water restrictions in the western part of the US have increased the competitiveness of growing regions with abundant water supplies, such as the Black Belt. The partners in this project are working directly with about 60 Black Belt growers who are interested in scaling up operations to participate in this new opportunity. While previously developed curriculum has narrowly focused on the need for beginning and experienced growers to meet regulatory requirements, this curriculum and experiential training activities will more broadly support them in their efforts to safely scaling up operations and will be guided by a producer and industry advisory group. The curriculum will also include elements of sustainable agriculture, encouraging farmers to adopt practices that are environmentally friendly and promote long-term ecological balance. This aligns with the growing consumer demand for sustainably produced food.According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, Alabama is home to 4,208 Black farmers (2017 Census of Agriculture Highlights: Black Producers, 2019). Black producers are on average older than U.S. producers (60.8 versus 57.5 years in 2017) and more likely to be veterans. Black owned farms tend to be small with 57% having sales and government payments of less than $5,000 per year. This statistic highlights the limited resource status of this underserved farmer segment, but also the potential of this demographic sector to expand significantly. The geographic focus of this project, the Black Belt, stretches across the southern region and is characterized by high levels of poverty. The Black Belt has a history rooted in agriculture, abundant water, and rich soil, but discrimination, economic, and social changes over the years have contributed to a decline in both production and infrastructure. This project works with several ongoing projects to positively address these systemic issues faced by this socially disadvantaged farmer segment in rural America specifically termed the Black Belt Food Corridor. Additionally, to address the aging farmer population, this project places special emphasis on capacity building within our 1890 and 1862 Land Grant System and Black Belt farming community with opportunities for engagement of the next generation of food safety professionals and farmers at each stage of the project.According to R. Chen, an Agricultural Economist at Tuskegee University, most farmers in the region believe that most of their production losses occur during storage and transportation of their product to market (2023). Technical support in implementing technologies, like pre-cooling produce prior to transport, can statistically significantly reduce losses, however 85% of farmers have not accessed technical assistance. Growers report not knowing where to access information or not finding online information relevant to them. In the area served by this project, resource limitations also reduce the adoption of technologies that enhance postharvest quality. This project addresses the educational needs by providing technical information tailored to empower farmers to ensure the safety, quality, and shelf life of product and works with other projects to provide financial resources for equipment and facility upgrades.In 1906, Tuskegee pioneered the use of agricultural demonstration wagons (commonly called Jesup wagons) to instruct farmers in disadvantaged regions of the state about farming methods to improve production. The wagons were the beginning of what eventually became Cooperative Extension. More recent research also supports experiential learning as the best model for providing educational opportunities to farmers (Johnson, Carter, & Kaufman, 2008). Additionally, reports and studies since the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011 have indicated that in person and experiential learning is needed by produce growers to be successful in implementing the standards. A recent study of Midwest farmers outreach method preferences specifically related to FSMA Produce Safety Rule outreach ranked face-to-face workshops highly over web-based outreach methods (Strohbehn et al., 2018) (Perry et al., 2019). The evaluation results from our previously funded FSOP project concur with the body of evidence supporting experiential learning (Woods et al., 2023).C. Objectives:Objective 1: Develop an array of curriculum materials to support minimizing postharvest loss, improving product quality, and upholding food safety in the Black Belt Food Corridor.Tuskegee University, Alabama A&M University, and Auburn University propose to develop a primary processing value-added curriculum for small, limited resource growers in the Black Belt region. Drawing on the legacy of George Washington Carver, technical information related to cooling, sorting, grading, and packaging will be presented using impactful experiential learning methods.The curriculum draws on the Small-Scale Postharvest Handling Practices: A Manual for Horticultural Crops (5th Edition) from UC Davis as the main source of content for the new material development. This comprehensive document contains 283 pages and a wealth of information related to all aspects of postharvest handling of crops. Because of its length and broad international scope, it lacks utility by small farms in the Black Belt. According to the national center for education statistics, up to 34% of Black Belt residents lack basic literacy skills, underscoring the need to present and teach technical content in a way that is easily understandable and break content into smaller pieces for digestibility by the audience. The materials developed will use industry best practices for the development of low literacy materials and the activities developed will employ best practices for adult education that will lead to greater understanding and ability to implement postharvest handling practices to improve product safety, quality, and shelf life. Additionally, the Small-Scale Postharvest Handling Practices book has not been updated since 2016. The materials will include FSMA related information from the Produce Safety and Preventive Controls for Human Foods Rules which have fully gone into effect since 2016.Objective 2: Support the development of the next generation of food science professionals with opportunities for engagement throughout the project.Alongside the material development process, we will offer internship, training, and outreach to young adults. Support for the next generation of food science professionals is woven throughout the project activities and a includes a strategic partnership with Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) to increase awareness of food processing as a potential career path. The potential for postharvest practices to reduce food waste may be of specific interest to emerging cohorts who will become adults in an age where climate change and global food security are the world's most pressing problems. It is our hope that exposing young adults to opportunities in food science will help address the aging population of current producers and engage young adults as future food producers and entrepreneurs in the region.

Project Methods
Objective 1: Develop an array of curriculum materials to support minimizing postharvest loss, improving product quality, and upholding food safety in the Black Belt Food Corridor.With stakeholders' needs clearly in focus, the PD and Co-PDs willdraft materials most useful to the audience. These materials will focus on 4 to 6 commodities commonly grown in the region such as peas, winter squash, collard greens, kale, and sweet corn. The technical information provided in the curriculum materials will generally be taken from Small-Scale Postharvest Handling Practices: A Manual for Horticultural Crops (5th Edition) from UC Davis.We will update the information related to FSMA regulations that have gone into effect in the last few years. The current manual contains detailed information related to postharvest loss for a breath of commodities grown domestically and internationally. Adult learning needs dictate that information be made available in useable components, thus we will provide the information specific to each commodity so that a greens grower does not need to sift through information related to winter squash to locate the information relevant to them. Each commodity specific factsheet, video, or other media will include scale-appropriate, cost-effective postharvest technologies for handling produce to:Assure food safety during fresh handling and primary processingAssure compliance with the FSMA Produce Safety and Preventive Controls RulesReduce postharvest losses due to water and weight loss, decay, and physical damageMaintain produce quality (color, flavor, texture, appearance, nutritional value, etc.) and economic value during postharvest handling, storage, and transportIncrease shelf life with proper temperature and relative humidity management andIncrease income by adopting those postharvest technologies that are most profitable for small-scale operations.In order to meet the learning needs of all producers in the region, the media and format will be accessible to those with limited literacy. We anticipate developing closed-captioned videos, infographics, and written materials along with experiential activities to reinforce content during in-person workshops. The written materials developed will use plain language that is clear, simple, and easy to understand and we believe all readers will appreciate this style. We will liberally use images, illustrations, and diagrams relevant to our audience to support understanding. Because a large portion of the audience uses a cell phone to access information, the National Food Safety Clearinghouse will be used to house materials created for this project. Graduate students and interns will work alongside PD Woods and Co-PD Rodrigues to draft materials and gain an understanding of a stakeholder centered material development process as part of our capacity building efforts.Both the materials and activities will be piloted with Black Belt growers to gather feedback before being distributed for broad use and made available for use with the existing Mobile Farm Innovation units. Each grower in attendance will receive a postharvest resource kit to take home as a thank you for taking the time to complete the pilot workshop feedback instrument and help them implement what they have learned. The kits will include items to help them improve postharvest handling such as tools for gentile and efficient harvest, baskets or crates, sorting mats for inspecting and categorizing produce, grading tools, cleaning brushes, breathable bags, ventilated containers, coolers, moisture-absorbing materials to control humidity, food safe cushioning materials to prevent damage during transportation, or thermometers and hygrometers for monitoring temperature and humidity. The items chosen for the kits will be determined by the advisory group and customized for each farm to as much extent as possible.Additionally, attendance at the pilot event is one way in which growers will qualify for a newly funded mini-grant program. We plan to make available mini-grants from an existing privately funded source to support improvements related to food safety, shelf life extension, and quality improvements for farmers who attend an array of educational opportunities including this pilot. The combination of increasing knowledge, seeing firsthand the improvements that can be made, the grower kits, and the mini-grant (funded from another source) will provide strong support for growers who wish to scale up operations.Objective 2:Support the development of the next generation of food science professionals with opportunities for engagement throughout the project.The internship and training activities outlined in this proposal align well with the existing college activities of involving students in partnership with private industry and in outreach projects. Tuskegee University's College of Agriculture and Nutritional Sciences offers a unique education that prepares future leaders through course work along with internships, research, and outreach activities. While one intern is funded by the project and will spend dedicated time supporting it, last summer 15 interns were hosted by Tuskegee University in West Alabama. We anticipate a similar number in the next few years and this project will be a key learning activity for the summer cohort. These activities enhance students' formal education with skills in critical and systematic thinking, intellectual curiosity, and a desire for lifelong learning. Students participating in these activities will be well positioned to enter the job market, enroll in professional or graduate programs, or engage in research, education or outreach.Additionally, Co-PD Jackson-Davis, with support from advisory committee member Dr. Shecoya White, will coordinate with MANRRS chapters across the region to distribute materials to raise awareness of career opportunities. The materials generated for this project will be shared during the MANRRS National Conference which draws an audience from 65 colleges and universities across the country. Co-PD Jackson-Davis will also host a Junior MANRRS K-12 Leadership Institute session at the national meeting to engage students. The content created for this project will be of specific interest to young adults who attend the conference to learn about the food, agriculture, natural resources, and related science fields.