Performing Department
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Non Technical Summary
Increasingly, consumers are connecting directly with producers, and local food systems are gaining strength across the nation. At the same time, concerns over food safety have been brought to the forefront by both consumers and legislators in response to rising occurrences of outbreaks of foodborne illness. A more robust federal food safety program has proven necessary in response to 46 percent of foodborne illness occurrences, 38 percent of hospitalizations, and 6 percent of deaths caused by eating fresh produce. In 2011, the US Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), prompting farmers across the nation to respond to federal regulation and market demand by developing on-farm standards for food safety which comply with the new law. In Massachusetts, the local food system thrives, boasting more than 250 farmers' markets statewide and generating 30 percent of New England's total direct market sales. With 80 percent of Massachusetts' farms categorized as family farms and 95 percent categorized as small-scale, the Commonwealth faces a particular challenge in ensuring that farmers are able to adapt their businesses to the FSMA regulations while maintaining economic viability and overall business success.New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New Entry) was started in 1998 to assist immigrant and refugee populations to begin farming in Massachusetts. In 2007, we expanded our target audience to all interested individuals who wish to enter into the commercial agricultural sector. New Entry programs include business planning; training in specialty crops and livestock production; access to farmland to engage in active vegetable production (on our incubator farm training sites); marketing assistance and access to the World PEAS Food Hub; financial/business management; access to capital, equipment, and facilities; and intensive technical assistance in planning for and implementing farm enterprise ownership. In addition, we also sponsor ancillary outreach, training and technical assistance programs reaching hundreds more beginning farmers across the Commonwealth, including our farmland matching services, year-round livestock workshops, farmer-to-farmer networking events, and topic-based short courses.As both a leading beginning farmer training organization in Massachusetts and the operator of the World PEAS Food Hub, New Entry's proposed goal for this NIFA FSOP project is to support diverse, economically disadvantaged, and small-scale producers in Massachusetts to understand and become compliant with FSMA. With the funding provided through NIFA FSOP, New Entry will use staff expertise to modify and adapt existing curricula on FSMA compliance provided by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety (NECAFS), and UMass Extension, to create training materials that target high-risk, small-scale, under-resourced, immigrant, refugee, and beginning farmers.New Entry will produce a Plain Language Guide to understanding FSMA regulations and implementing appropriate food safety practices on small-scale farm enterprises in Massachusetts. This training tool will utilize Plain Language (low-literacy) techniques and focus on being an accessible and comprehensive food safety training guide appropriate for diverse types of learners. In addition to producing a Plain Language Guide, New Entry will deliver an educational food safety training curriculum for underserved and socially disadvantaged audiences. New Entry will collaborate with Global Growers, a non-profit organization based in the metro-Atlanta region working to provide land, agricultural support, training, and technical assistance to local refugee farmers in the Southeast. Global Growers will support the development of a food safety training curriculum modified for immigrant and refugee growers in the Northeast by making their curricula, resources, materials, and facilitation techniques around food safety protocols available to New Entry.The New Entry Plain Language Food Safety Guide and the new training curriculum will be utilized in conjunction with tailored facilitation techniques to train at least 300 small-scale beginning, immigrant and refugee farmers in eastern Massachusetts. The resource will be integrated into New Entry's technical assistance programming and incorporated into our case management system for growers. New Entry will work closely with a core group of 20 high-risk growers to assist each farmer with the development of an appropriate and achievable food safety plan to be implemented on their farm. The training curriculum and guide will reach a broader regional audience of beginning, immigrant, and refugee growers through a workshop offered in partnership with MDAR and UMass Extension to offer a workshop in eastern Massachusetts, where the curriculum will be taught and the guide will be disseminated.The New Entry Plain Language Food Safety Guide will also be disbursed widely throughout our broad networks. The curriculum will be incorporated into our 8-week farm business planning course which is offered twice per year to over 50 beginning farmers. The guide will be presented and offered as a resource to the Urban Farming Institute of Boston's Urban Farmer Training Program which is taught each spring and summer by New Entry staff to over 30 aspiring urban farmers. The resources will be made available for free through a variety of websites, list serves and networks, including: New Entry's website and the Global Growers' website; the New Entry newsletter (which reaches over 4,900 subscribers); the National Incubator Farm Training Initiative (NIFTI) listserv, a network of over 200 incubator farm training programs across the country; New Entry's statewide Beginning Farmer Network of Massachusetts; and resources will be cataloged in the New Entry agricultural lending library in our Lowell office. Through these networks the guide will reach an estimated 2,500 producers.Through this initiative, New Entry will assist vulnerable and high-risk beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers to pro-actively address the growing demand to comply with food safety regulation, allowing them to provide more safe locally grown food to our communities.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
For this project titled "Adapting Food Safety Curriculum and Training Materials to Support Comprehensive Technical Assistance Programming Targeting Diverse Beginning Farmers in Massachusetts," New Entry Sustainable Farming Project will develop curriculum, offer training and provide technical assistance to high-need and under-resourced farmers around the implementation of FSMA compliant food safety plans. Due to structural barriers, cultural differences, language, and access to resources, small-scale, beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers face the biggest challenge to adapting on-farm food safety practices, and will be the most vulnerable to meeting the requirements of FSMA. To ensure that this targeted audience receives adequate training around food safety, New Entry will use staff expertise to modify and adapt existing curricula on FSMA compliance provided by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) and the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety (NECAFS). Staff will use this curricula to develop a Plain Language Guide to understanding the FSMA regulations and implementing them on a small-scale farm enterprise in Massachusetts. New Entry will provide technical assistance to 20 high-risk farmers in the development and implementation of an on-farm food safety plan. Staff will also incorporate the modified curriculum into current farmer training curricula, and make the resource widely available to farmers, as well as our peer organizations across the country. In total, the Plain Language guide will assist over 2,000 small-scale and under-resourced vegetable producers across the United States develop appropriate strategies for implementing sustainable on-farm food safety practices.Objective 1: Adapt FDA-approved food safety training materials to create a "Plain Language Guide to FSMA Compliance" and a targeted training curriculum for over 2,500 beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers in eastern Massachusetts and beyond. Using resource materials developed by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety (NECAFS), and Global Growers, New Entry will produce a comprehensive training curriculum and a Plain Language Guide to implementing affordable on-farm FSMA compliant food safety protocols for vegetable farmers for long-term farm business success. Training curricula and Resource Guide Content will cover:Food safety risks associated with vegetable production (site and soil conditions, nutrient and compost management, irrigation/water potability, and pest management)Harvest and post-harvest handling practices, testing and managing water resources for washing crops; packaging, cooling, and transportation.On-farm hygiene and sanitation practices including worker education.Background and context for FSMA legislation.FSMA's Produce Rule; requirements for small-scale farmers to comply.Modifications to on-farm food safety systems to adhere with FSMA regulations.Whole farm business management under FSMA; record-keeping for food safety.The guide will be developed using Plain Language techniques, including but not limited to: presenting information in a clear, straight-forward, organized, and intuitive manner; separating information into defined sections, utilizing simple, precise, concise, and active language; highlighting information relevant to the specific audience; emphasizing components which require action; displaying complex information pictorially; providing a glossary of technical terms. Materials will be available as hard copy and electronic versions. This Plain Language Guide and curriculum development will be designed to supplement existing FSMA training offered by UMass and MDAR, providing simplification of content to reach a wide and diverse audience, but targeted at eastern Massachusetts farmers.Objective 2: Integrate food safety education into New Entry's technical assistance programming to support long-term adherence to food safety regulations. An integral part of this project is providing on-going individual technical assistance throughout the year to help farmers adapt their farm systems to adhere to food safety protocols. This includes one-on-one pre-season technical assistance to develop a FSMA compliant food safety plan with each grower; mid-season monitoring of progress through weekly farm visits; and end-of season evaluation. This model fits directly into our farmer case management system which uses this strategy to monitor farmers' progress in business and crop planning, land leases and infrastructure, and production standard/quality control. New Entry will establish food safety plans and integrate monitoring of those plans into the case management system with at least 20 socially disadvantaged farmers who need the most training and support to achieve compliance.Objective 3: Disseminate food safety training materials targeted at beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers for utilization by farmers and replication among our peer organizations. New Entry will integrate the modified food safety training materials into our 8-week farm business planning course, offered twice during the grant period, reaching an estimated 50 beginning farmers. It will also be presented and offered as a resource to the Urban Farming Institute of Boston's Urban Farmer Training Program which is taught each spring and summer by New Entry staff to 30 aspiring urban farmers. We will also distribute materials to our farmer network via our New Entry listserv, reaching over 500 farmers, and through our Beginning Farmer Network reaching an additional 500 farmers, and through the Boston Food System list serv, reaching 750 farmers. We will inform small-scale farmers of this resource through our monthly e-newsletter, reaching another 4,900 individuals, and make the materials available on our website. In order to share the resource with organizations that might find it useful, we will also make the materials available through the National Incubator Farm Training Initiative, reaching over 200 organizations across the country. Hard copies of the guide will be available in the New Entry Agricultural Lending Library located at our Lowell office. Finally, New Entry will collaborate with MDAR and UMass Extension to host a food safety and FSMA compliance workshop for farmers in eastern MA during which the guide will be disbursed to an estimated 50 attendees. The resource will be made available for MDAR and UMass Extension to disseminate through their producer listservs. It is estimated that the resource will be accessed by over 2,500 farmers in eastern Massachusetts.
Project Methods
Activities will include:Obtain FDA-approved FSMA training curriculum from the Produce Safety Alliance, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), and UMass Extension.Modify approved FSMA training curriculum for beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers using Plain Language techniques.Produce a Plain Language Resource Guide to food safety and FSMA compliance targeted to beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers. Incorporate case studies and visuals.This project will use the principles of Plain Language to modify FDA-approved curriculum to train beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers on food safety protocols for vegetable production. Plain Language techniques include, but are limited to: presenting information in a clear, straight-forward, organized, and intuitive manner; separating information into defined sections, utilizing simple, precise, concise, and active language; highlighting information relevant to the specific audience; emphasizing components which require action; displaying complex information pictorially; providing a glossary of technical terms.This project will also rely on one-on-one technical assistance between New Entry staff and beginning, immigrant, and refugee farmers that includes farm site visits, field based group and one-on-one trainings, office consultations, connections and referrals to other specialists and USDA, state or local programs, and other support systems to engage producers in improving farm-level food safety practices. New Entry staff use a structured case management farmer technical assistance delivery approach and all farmer interactions are documented on an online CRM database.The main quantitative outcomes and results we will track for this initiative are:Development and production of a Plain Language Food Safety and FSMA compliance guide, track number of copies downloaded or distributed. Survey users for feedback.Twenty New Entry farmers develop or adopt a food safety plan utilizing the new curriculum, measured by tracking the completion of the final document.Document behavior change leading to implementation of the food safety plan, measured by visits to the farm, check-ins as a part of the case management system, and one-on-one technical assistance. We will track TA hours and record farmer progress via CRM/case management through written evaluations.Delivery of a food safety workshop presented by New Entry, MDAR, and UMass Extension to 50 farmers in MA. We will track workshop attendance, evaluation feedback by enrolled farmers, and will monitor achievement of learning objectives and document behavior change by producers at post-training intervals through surveys and follow up. Posting and website promotion of the training materials tracked by the number of emails sent via list serves, number of subscribers, and number of resource downloads.