Progress 09/01/17 to 02/28/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The goal of the project was to serve small scale, organic and Spanish speaking farmers. Registration logs from all 8 workshops show that 31% of attendees attended Spanish-language only workshops. Registration logs from the first six workshops indicated that 71% of attendees worked for or owned an organic operation. (The CCOF Foundation did not obtain data on the organic status of registrants for the final two workshops given that an outside conference organization ran the workshop registration.) Technical assistance logs reported an even higher percentage of organic growers (94%) and Spanish-speakers (37%). Post-workshop surveys identified that 9% (or 14% of those reporting sales) of respondents were small-scale farmers averaging between $250,000 and $500,000 in annual produce sales. It is interesting to note that 36.0% (or 58% of those who reported sales) reported annual produce sales below $250,000. This indicates that owners and operators of very-small farms took advantage of the CCOF Foundation's PSA trainings as well. Changes/Problems:Medium-Term Changes as a Result of Training and Technical Assistance. A follow-up survey was conducted in October and November 2018 to determine if farmers who received technical assistance and/or training had increased understanding of the practices, and to identify if participants were complying with the FSMA standards (as measured by implementing desired food safety related behaviors). The survey was sent to 123 people in October 2018 who had taken the PSA training up to that point (5 workshops) or had received at least an hour of technical assistance. English speakers were contacted via email and took the survey online (through Survey Monkey). Spanish speakers were called and asked if they would complete the survey - then sent a paper copy to their residence (along with a stamped return envelope). Spanish speakers, trained locally to Santa Cruz through a partner organization, were asked to take the survey at their October 2018 monthly organization meeting. These different data collection methods were used to ensure inclusion of responses from Spanish speakers (who are more likely to respond to personal contact, not through email), and to make the survey implementation process time efficient for project staff (using email and Survey Monkey for English speakers). The survey was conducted anonymously, to encourage participation. To ensure anonymity, demographic information was not collected, which could inadvertently identify people (since the overall group was small). We also excluded a few people who had less than an hour of technical assistance training and had not taken the PSA course. Since those interventions were so brief, it was believed that they may not remember the technical assistance and/or even respond to the survey. There were 16 people who took the follow-up survey (13% response rate), where 14 were farm personnel (farm owners, operators, farm staff or farm workers), and 2 were in a support role (extension educator, consultant, produce industry, government employee, etc.). All respondents took the PSA course, 9 reported receiving at least some technical assistance. Changes in Behavior. Those that responded to the survey offered positive feedback regarding the impact made by the PSA training and technical assistance efforts. Overall, 14 (88%) of respondents took some kind of action that could be considered further complying with FSMA standards (such as improving their food safety practices, writing or revising a food safety plan, preparing for an audit, etc.). Of the farm owners and farm staff who attended the PSA trainings, 12 (92%) of the 13 respondents took at least one food safety related action, and 11 (85%) said they used information from the PSA course to inform these actions. Overall, 14 (93%) of 15 participants (for whom actions are applicable) still plan to take some kind of action in the next 3 months that could be considered further complying with FSMA standards. Six plan to write or revise a food safety plan, 4 plan to conduct their own internal food safety audit, 6 plan to prepare for a 3rd party audit, 5 plan to undergo an audit, 13 plan to improve their food safety practices, and 7 plan to assist farms to help them improve their food safety practices. Most farmers or farm staff (11/79% of 14) noted they are confident they can get the help they need with food safety issues on their farm. More specifically, of the 9 people who reported receiving TA services, 8 (89%) reported increased knowledge about the FSMA Produce Safety Rule as a result of the technical assistance. These same 8 (89%) also noted an increase in confidence to deal with the FSMA Produce Safety Rule as a result of the technical assistance (7 specifically said "I feel more confident" and 1 said "I feel somewhat confident"). Similarly, these same respondents (8/89%) reported making changes to improve their food safety practices based on the technical assistance they received. Overall, it is encouraging that these large proportions of respondents have taken action to improve food safety behaviors and meet FSMA regulations. It is particularly encouraging that they report having the confidence to address these regulations into the future. However, the small response rate (which is not unusual for a follow-up survey based on a short intervention) makes it difficult to make statements about all who were served by the trainings. Key Take Away Points PSA workshops helped farmers and agricultural professionals gain knowledge about FSMA food safety guidelines, as well as confidence in implementing them. Generally, 80% or more of workshop participants reported these positive outcomes. Farmers and agricultural professionals who responded to the follow up survey reported that the PSA workshops helped them implement changes to their food safety practices. Due to the low survey response rate (which is not unusual for a follow-up survey based on a short intervention), we do not have information on how it helped workshop participants as a whole. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project afforded significant training and professional development opportunities for small to medium scale producers, many of whom were certified organic, and 31% of whome spoke Spanish fluently. Please see Other Productssection for more complete details on trainings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Significant marketing and outreach occurred for this project thorugh CCOF's large communication network of producers. Please see table below for marketing and outreach data. Marketing and Outreach Data for the 2017-2019 NIFA Grant Type of Outreach Send Date Number of Recipients Postcard Brochure 8-Jan-19 1424 CCOF Winter Magazine 22-Jan-18 4,300 CCOF Spring Magazine 3-Apr-18 4,300 CCOF Summer Magazine 6/29/2018 4,300 CCOF Fall Magazine 9/28/2018 4,300 Email outreach 2018 Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 14,000 CCOF has shared results and project activities with multiple partner organizations via diverse methods of communication. Results were sharedwith farmers, agricultural professionals, policy makers, funders, collaborators, and supporters via CCOF's website (30,000 visits per month), social media, quarterly magazine-Certified Organic (4,300), and quarterlyemails to 14,000 individuals and organizations- including approximately 4,000 farmers. CCOF also communicated results to other farmer organizations via a one page summary of the project. (Q1 2019). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project made great strides towards creating aculture of informed foodsafety decision making, consistent compliance and more complete understanding of the Food Safety Modernization Act in the small, organic, and Spanish Language farm communities in California. Through PSA and other food safety trainings, technical assistance, and webinars, the project reached 437individuals. 192 farmers and agricultural professionals received PSA trainings (12 more than expected). 51 farmers and agricultural professionals received technical assistance (1 more than expected). 68 farmers from ALBA recieved trainings to better understand food safety and FSMA (70 expected). 126 peopleattended webinars on food saftey (26 more than expected).Producers were also reached through a postcard mailing (1,424 individuals), four hard copy magazine articles (4,300 individuals/per magazine), and quarterly email outreach updates for the duration of the project (14,000 individuals/per mailing). Immediate Changes as a Result of Training The CCOF Foundation utilized the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) Grower Training Course Evaluation post-workshop survey to document changes in knowledge and confidence as a result of the PSA training. PSA developed and piloted the survey in 2015 and updated it in 2016. Workshop instructors passed out surveys at the beginning of the workshop and encouraged participates to fill them out after the completion of each module. CCOF staff collected the surveys at the end of the workshop and sent them to PSA for scanning and tabulation. PSA shared the resulting data with CCOF. The information reported here comes from the 5 workshops for which CCOF has received back data. The survey was completed by 111 (89%) of workshop participants. Of those that responded to the post workshop surveys, 57 (51.4%) were farm owners/operators, 9 (8.1%) were farm workers, 18 (16.2%) were extension educators, government employees, from the produce industry, or "other." There were 27 respondents (34.2%) who did not identify their occupation. The majority of respondents were ages 41-55 (30/27%), have been farming for [0-10] years (54/48.6%), and grow leafy greens (31/27.9%) or mixed vegetables (includes greens) (50/45.0%). Generally, almost a quarter of respondents did not complete questions in the demographic section, so the percentages reported here are conservative, and likely to actually be higher. Increase in Knowledge. In the PSA Grower Training Course Evaluation, participants were asked how much they agreed with the sentences, "the module increased my knowledge of ...." for topics in each of the 7 modules (described earlier). For all 9 of the knowledge related questions, 90.3% of the responses either "strongly agreed" or "agreed" that the modules increased their knowledge. Respondents most often agreed/strongly agreed that their knowledge increased regarding soil amendment requirements (97.3%), produce safety requirements (92.8%), and worker health, hygiene and training requirements (92.8%). Respondents noted the least amount of knowledge increase regarding developing a food safety plan (84.7%), developing a traceability system (85.6%) and regarding post-harvest handling and sanitation requirements (88.3%). For farm owners and operators (n=57), 91.2% of their responses noted they "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that their knowledge increased, over the 9 questions. Similar to the respondents as a whole, they most often agreed/strongly agreed that their knowledge increased regarding soil amendment requirements (96.5%), produce safety requirements (93.0%), and worker health, hygiene and training requirements (93.0%). The farm owners and operators did report more of an increase in knowledge of developing a food safety plan (89.5%). Similar to the group as a whole, 86.0% of farm owners or operators increased their knowledge about developing a traceability system. Increase in Confidence. The post workshop survey also asked about how confident participants felt about implementing the materials from the different modules. Overall, 87.6% of the responses either strongly agreed or agreed that that modules increased their confidence to implement the material. Respondents (111) were most confident that they could implement post-harvest water practices (91.0% strongly agree or agree), implement production water practices (90.1%), and implement worker health, hygiene, and training practices (90.1%). Respondents were the least confident they could develop a traceability system (79.3%) or that they could develop a food safety plan (84.7%). Farmers or farm operators (57) were most confident they could implement practices regarding soil amendments (94.7% strongly agree or agree), implement worker health practices (91.2%) and implement postharvest water practices (91.2%). Farm owners and operators were least confident they could develop a traceability system (86.0%) and develop a food safety plan (89.5%). Overall, those that identified themselves as farm owners or operators reported slightly higher rates of confidence to implement the food safety practices. All respondents reported the least confidence in developing a traceability system and developing a food safety plan. However, since these topics are in the last section of a daylong workshop, and developing a food safety plan is not required for produce growers by the Food Safety Modernization Act regulations, the lower scores may make sense. Commitment. Overall, of the 111 respondents, 91.9% said they were committed to implementing produce safety practices on their farm. Those that said they were farm owners or operators (57) reported a slightly higher rate of commitment (94.7%).
Publications
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Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:65 people attended our first webinar "How Do I Need To Comply with FSMA" on January 22, 2018. The audience was primarily organic farmers and organic handling/processing facilities with farming operations. There were also minority farmers, UC Extension employees, agricultural professionals in the input, certification, and trading industries, community college employees and organic produce distributors. In addition to the webinar, CCOF mailed a physical postcard detailing the upcoming FSMA deadline for PSA training to the 1,550 affected organic farmers in California. This postcard included information on the PSA trainings that will be offered as part of this grant. CCOF reached 125 farmers with 6 PSA trainings for growers. Of these 125, 46 were Latino growers for which trainings were held in Spanish. Changes/Problems:CCOF had stated in our application that we would hire a Spanish translator for 2 bilingual trainings. Upon research and reflection, it became apparent that the PSA training is too complicated to be translated onsite. We instead decided to conduct simultaneous trainings at the same site- one in English and one in Spanish- and the Spanish workshop will be conducted by a PSA approved trainer who is a native Spanish speaker. This solution worked very well in Fresno/Clovis, and we intend to continue to do this for the rest of the Spanish speaking trainings that we'd planned. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Webinar "How Do I Need To Comply with FSMA" on January 22, 2018 See recording here: https://www.ccof.org/ccof/structure/ccof-foundation/ccof-foundation-programs/organic-training-institute/past-events How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Webinar "How Do I Need To Comply with FSMA" on January 22, 2018 Webinar is availble for free download off of CCOF website, all attendees receive a copy and are encouraged to share: https://www.ccof.org/ccof/structure/ccof-foundation/ccof-foundation-programs/organic-training-institute/past-events What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the next 7 months, CCOF will conduct the rest of the PSA trainings that are outlined in our Statement of Work, as well as conduct all of the technical assistance as part of this grant. Please see schedule of workshops here:https://www.ccof.org/psa-approved-food-safety-workshops
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Project Objectives: Help small, organic, and Spanish-only speaking growers satisfy the FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirement outlined in § 112.22(c) that requires'At least one supervisor or responsible party for your farm must have successfully completed food safety training at least equivalent to that received under standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration. CCOF organized, publicized, and completed 1 webinar and 5 PSA grower trainings listed above. Increase small, organic, and Spanish-only speaking grower knowledge of FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirements 65 people attended our first webinar "How Do I Need to Comply with FSMA" on January 22, 2018. The audience was primarily small-medium scale organic farmers and organic handling/processing facilities with farming operations 35 small, organic, and Spanish only speaking growers attended our Salinas PSA Grower Training Course on 2/6/2018 31 small/medium scale and organic/conventional farmers attended our Fresno/Clovis PSA Grower Training Course on 3/7/2018 11 small scale organic and Spanish only speaking growers attended our Fresno/Clovis PSA Food Safety Training on 3/7/2018 26 small/medium scale organic farmers attended our Woodland - PSA Food Safety Training on 3/28/2018 22 small scale organic growers attended our PSA Food Safety Training on 4/11/2018 Increase small, organic, and Spanish-only speaking grower understanding of the Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) outlined in FSMA CCOF hired Kaley Grimland, a PSA approved trainer fluent in Spanish to teach the Spanish PSA trainings. We chose to hire a PSA approved Spanish language trainer rather than translate these trainings because simultaneous translation of 8 hours of technical power points would not be able to transmit the information in a manner conducive to learning. Rather than use simultaneous translation, CCOF organized an additional room at the Clovis/Fresno location and taught the English and Spanish classes at the same time- in two different rooms. This method worked well and is highly recommended. Partner organization ALBA hosted the Spanish PSA training at their facility in Salinas, all staff/coordinators are bilingual and training had 35 attendees. CCOF has translated all materials (https://www.ccof.org/talleres-de-seguridad-alimentaria-aprobados-por-psa) and conducted outreach in both Spanish and English Increase small, organic, and Spanish only language primary grower implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) ALBA is compiling educational materials to distribute to 100 growers in the ALBA network about FSMA requirements ALBA is conducting Technical Assistance in Spanish for growers that attended the PSA workshop
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
CCOF mailed a physical postcard detailing the upcoming FSMA deadline for PSA training to the 1,550 affected organic farmers in California. This postcard included information on the PSA trainings that will be offered as part of this grant.
CCOF also organized and held the following PSA trainings for growers:
" Salinas PSA Grower Training Course, Spanish, 2/6/2018, 35 Attendees
" Fresno/Clovis PSA Grower Training Course, English, 3/7/2018, 31 Attendees
" Fresno/Clovis - Spanish PSA Food Safety Training, Spanish - 3/7/2018, 11 Attendees
" Woodland - PSA Food Safety Training English- 3/28/2018, 26 Attendees
" San Diego - PSA Food Safety Training English- 4/11/2018, 22 Attendees
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