Progress 09/01/19 to 01/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:For most beginning farmers, resource constraints define their fledgling businesses. Lack of access to critical business resources is the overarching message from the over 3,500 farmers surveyed in the 2017 Building a Future with Farmers II report published by the National Young Farmers Coalition. From negotiating land tenure and managing student loan debt to navigating food safety practices, beginning farmers are challenged with business planning under financial constraints (Ackoff et al., 2017). While all farmers understand both the immediate and long-term benefits of robust produce safety plans and procedures, the implementation of food safety plans can be a challenge. Allocating time for thorough training as well as dedicating financial resources to infrastructure that does not provide an immediate return on investment can be a logistical impossibility for young and beginning farmers. Based on FDA estimates for produce safety compliance, farmers not operating on a large farm may incur compliance costs equivalent to 6.77% of average annual gross sales (Bovay et al., 2018). This can be significant for beginning operations, especially as beginning farmers face significant cash-flow challenges in earlier years. With the 2017 Census of Agriculture finding that only 15% of farms with a principal producer as a new and beginning producer generate over $50,000 in annual sales, the priority for beginning farmers often is income growth and increased profitability (2017 Census of Agriculture). The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), in particular the Produce Safety Rule (PSR), directed farmers to improve their food safety practices and enforced new requirements for farming operations. However, the Coalition's engagement with over 1,600 farmers in the past two years has revealed that there remains a relative unawareness of FSMA and its applicability to smaller farms. Given the small scope of beginning farm operations and the Coalition's on-the-ground observations, many young and beginning farmers are qualified exempt from FSMA. And so, while the FDA and USDA have done exceptional work to support a national network of experts, guides, and mentors for farmers, these agencies have justifiably prioritized engagement with major producers and large farms over beginning farmers who do not exceed the necessary thresholds for full compliance. Beginning produce farmers across the country, many of whom report needing better support with business planning and operational guidance, are the target audience for this proposal (Ackoff et al., 2017). Our pre-COVID plan for 2020-2022 targeted 4 specific regions and 12 of our farmer chapters, but online programming since Spring 2020 has allowed farmers nationwide to access our programming about produce safety, reaching out to various farm service and support agencies, regional centers, individual farmers, farmer networks, and produce safety partners. In addition, we are working to build the network of food safety trainers and leaders who are representative of the small farmers that we work with; this includes small farmers not subject to the Produce Rule, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and queer farmers, and cooperative farmers. Furthermore, at the Southern Region Integrated Produce Safety Conference in October 2020, it was explained that there is a significant lack of BIPOC Produce Safety Alliance lead trainers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in southern states (in fact, seven HBCU institutions reported that they do not have any BIPOC lead food safety trainers on staff). This information only reinforces the importance of the audience we are working with through this Food Safety Outreach Program funding. The National Young Farmers Coalition, both in food safety training and organization-wide, works to center BIPOC farmer voices and shift power in the agricultural sector. Activities associated with this grant including the food safety plan writing class and food safety fellowship were promoted through Young Farmers channels, which include the fellowship landing page of our website (www.youngfarmers.org/fellowship, social media (Facebook: 74k followers, Instagram: 66.4k followers, and Twitter: 17.8k followers), direct communication with the chapter leaders of our 50 chapters in 32 states, chapter and network-wide newsletters (24,584 newsletter subscribers), our National Leadership Committee listserv (303 farmers), and our food safety listserv (91 organizations and individuals). Farmers of any scale or marketing approach were invited to participate, but 100% of our food safety fellows are running or working on farms less than 10 acres in size, growing diversified vegetables, and marketing and selling direct to consumers through CSAs, farm shares, farm stands, or farmers markets. Only one reported needing to receive a FSMA inspection or pursuing a HGAP+ audit. Changes/Problems:Throughout the grant period, we have adapted this project to the demands and challenges associated with the pandemic. Extending virtual efforts, we continued to deliver on the goals of the grant in new and innovative ways, successfully running a food safety fellowship program with 11 farmers from across the country. Over years of consistent virtual engagement, we've developed skills to stay present and build trust, even in an online context. Emphasizing peer-to-peer connections is paramount. This kind of human connection was the inspiration for our gathering in Puerto Rico, which required us to shift gears to accommodate in-person logistics. Changes and problems were minimal; shipping delays caused PSA manuals to arrive late in Caguas, but we have been able to work with community partners to ensure they reached local participants even after the departure of our fellows. ? What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided generous opportunities for farmers to enhance their food safety technical skills and grow as leaders. During the reporting period, fellows benefited from in-person leadership and skills development in Caguas. The value of community and knowledge built on the ground cannot be overstated. Fellows benefited from the opportunity to exchange expertise and place-based insight while cultivating relationships and building food safety infrastructure in collaboration. Fellows came away with experiential insight into the food safety practices in Caguas and practiced applying their expertise in a real-world context. They also grew their facilitation skills, working in-person with groups of farmers and interfacing with Language Justice interpreters to build an inclusive, energizing space. This learning extended to our hosts and other participants in the gathering, with whom fellows worked up to build a wash and pack station and make design recommendations. ? How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?On an ongoing basis, our fellows worked to disseminate resources and knowledge throughout agricultural communities. During the reporting period, PSA manuals were disseminated at no cost to our hosts and community partners in Caguas, including 30+ attendees of the Intercambio de Saberes. Our hosts and partners at El Departamento de la Comida continue to maintain a free library of additional farming and food safety materials and resources. ? What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Launched during the height of the pandemic, our Food Safety Fellowship equipped 11 majority BIPOC-QT (Black, Indigenous, people of color, queer and trans) farmer fellows from across the United States and Puerto Rico to act as food safety leaders in their own communities. Fellows built knowledge on PSA topics including labor, staff, and water usage via virtual and hybrid learning opportunities and developed facilitation skills via peer-to-peer learning. Through external opportunities including on-the-ground food safety tours, independent projects, and workshops, fellows stewarded networks of farmers with whom to share this knowledge and put skills into practice. This community-based model expands the impact of our project, producing a ripple effect. Four fellows have participated in advanced training toward certification as Lead Produce Safety Trainers; this speaks to the program's success toward the stated goals, even in pandemic conditions. Additional tangible results during the grant period are detailed in past progress reports and include; multiple Food Safety Plan writing workshops, trainings on FSMA compliance hosted in collaboration with PSA, community-based food safety events hosted by fellows, and a living Resource Library that includes dozens of produce safety resources, including 3 tipsheets that we created based on farmer guidance. This November, following hundreds of hours of virtual engagement and education, four fellows gathered in person in Caguas, Puerto Rico to practice an approach to food safety that's deeply rooted in community care. The two-day gathering was hosted by program partners El Departamento de la Comida in collaboration with La Semilla Food Center. In addition to organizing logistics, our hosts provided meals for Fellows and community members and facilitated simultaneous interpretation to ensure accessible participation. Workshops and conversations facilitated by fellows and staff from Young Farmers, La Semilla, and El Departamento covered topics from the importance of storytelling to the food safety concerns related to aggregating produce for mutual aid. Fellows and hosts also joined in an "Intercambio de Saberes," an exchange of knowledge with 30+ attendees from all over Puerto Rico. Together, we reflected on principles found in the Produce Safety Alliance resources and how to apply them within small farm communities with care and attention. Our conversations were complemented by hands-on work. Fellows cultivated and mulched terraced hillside garden beds at a host's farm and mixed and laid a concrete foundation for a wash and pack station. This station will be used by the host farm as well as 10 neighboring farms that presently lack wash and pack infrastructure. Fellows made recommendations to improve flow of produce from harvest to refrigeration. Fellows put their training to work to implement infrastructure and recommendations as well as a quantity of PSA manuals in Spanish.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Young Farmers Food Safety Fellowship closes out in Puerto Rico
https://www.youngfarmers.org/2023/12/young-farmers-food-safety-fellowship-closes-out-in-puerto-rico/
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:For most beginning farmers, resource constraints define their fledgling businesses. Lack of access to critical business resources is the overarching message from the over 3,500 farmers surveyed in the 2017 Building a Future with Farmers II report published by the National Young Farmers Coalition. From negotiating land tenure and managing student loan debt to navigating food safety practices, beginning farmers are challenged with business planning under financial constraints (Ackoff et al., 2017). While all farmers understand both the immediate and long-term benefits of robust produce safety plans and procedures, the implementation of food safety plans can be a challenge. Allocating time for thorough training as well as dedicating financial resources to infrastructure that does not provide an immediate return on investment can be a logistical impossibility for young and beginning farmers. Based on FDA estimates for produce safety compliance, farmers not operating on a large farm may incur compliance costs equivalent to 6.77% of average annual gross sales (Bovay et al., 2018). This can be significant for beginning operations, especially as beginning farmers face significant cash-flow challenges in earlier years. With the 2017 Census of Agriculture finding that only 15% of farms with a principal producer as a new and beginning producer generate over $50,000 in annual sales, the priority for beginning farmers often is income growth and increased profitability (2017 Census of Agriculture). The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), in particular the Produce Safety Rule (PSR), directed farmers to improve their food safety practices and enforced new requirements for farming operations. However, the Coalition's engagement with over 1,600 farmers in the past two years has revealed that there remains a relative unawareness of FSMA and its applicability to smaller farms. Given the small scope of beginning farm operations and the Coalition's on-the-ground observations, many young and beginning farmers are qualified exempt from FSMA. And so, while the FDA and USDA have done exceptional work to support a national network of experts, guides, and mentors for farmers, these agencies have justifiably prioritized engagement with major producers and large farms over beginning farmers who do not exceed the necessary thresholds for full compliance. Beginning produce farmers across the country, many of whom report needing better support with business planning and operational guidance, are the target audience for this proposal (Ackoff et al., 2017). Our pre-COVID plan for 2020-2022 targeted 4 specific regions and 12 of our farmer chapters, but online programming since Spring 2020 has allowed farmers nationwide to access our programming about produce safety, reaching out to various farm service and support agencies, regional centers, individual farmers, farmer networks, and produce safety partners. In addition, we are working to build the network of food safety trainers and leaders who are representative of the small farmers that we work with; this includes small farmers not subject to the Produce Rule, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and queer farmers, and cooperative farmers. Furthermore, at the Southern Region Integrated Produce Safety Conference in October 2020, it was explained that there is a significant lack of BIPOC Produce Safety Alliance lead trainers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in southern states (in fact, seven HBCU institutions reported that they do not have any BIPOC lead food safety trainers on staff). This information only reinforces the importance of the audience we are working with through this Food Safety Outreach Program funding. The National Young Farmers Coalition, both in food safety training and organization-wide, works to center BIPOC farmer voices and shift power in the agricultural sector. Activities associated with this grant including the food safety plan writing class and food safety fellowship were promoted through Young Farmers channels, which include the fellowship landing page of our website (www.youngfarmers.org/fellowship, social media (Facebook: 74k followers, Instagram: 66.4k followers, and Twitter: 17.8k followers), direct communication with the chapter leaders of our 50 chapters in 32 states, chapter and network-wide newsletters (24,584 newsletter subscribers), our National Leadership Committee listserv (303 farmers), and our food safety listserv (91 organizations and individuals). Farmers of any scale or marketing approach were invited to participate, but 100% of our food safety fellows are running or working on farms less than 10 acres in size, growing diversified vegetables, and marketing and selling direct to consumers through CSAs, farm shares, farm stands, or farmers markets. Only one reported needing to receive a FSMA inspection or pursuing a HGAP+ audit. Changes/Problems:Throughout the grant period, we have adapted this project to the demands and challenges associated with the pandemic. Extending virtual efforts, we continued to deliver on the goals of the grant in new and innovative ways, successfully launching a food safety fellowship program with 11 majority BIPOC-QT (Black, Indigenous, people of color, queer and trans) farmers from across the country. This fellowship continues to resource the next generation of food safety leaders in the field who can move on to be service providers in their own communities. Even as pandemic restrictions have loosened, we continue to adapt to its challenges. Staff, fellows, and farmers alike have struggled to remain engaged throughout years of exclusively virtual programming. For farmers, the pandemic has been especially stressful; maintaining their attention long-term through this difficult time has required adaption and agility. Together, we've developed skills to stay present and build trust, even in an online context. Emphasizing peer-to-peer connections is paramount. This kind of human connection was the inspiration for our in-person training in Puerto Rico. Shifting gears and amending our budget to prioritize in-person trust and relationship building is a necessary and exciting adaptation to compensate for so much online time. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided generous opportunities for farmers to enhance their food safety technical skills and grow as leaders. Our Food Safety Fellowship continues to equip farmers with the tools to act as food safety leaders in their own communities. During the reporting period, fellows benefited from a training on virtual facilitation skills, where they learned how to engage an audience using dynamic and effective online tools. Additionally, fellows continued to meet monthly to build skills and knowledge on PSA topics including labor, staff, and water usage. Through peer-to-peer learning and quizzing on FSMA rules, fellows built their factual knowledge and leadership development. Through external opportunities and ongoing training, they developed networks of farmers with whom to share this knowledge and put learned skills into practice. This community-based model expands the impact of our project, producing a ripple effect. Four fellows are continuing on to pursue higher certification as Lead Produce Safety Trainers. ? How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?On an ongoing basis, our fellows work to disseminate resources and knowledge throughout agricultural communities. During the reporting period, one fellow hosted a Food Safety Plan writing workshop. We are currently building capacity to launch a food safety-centered communications campaign targeted towards small farmers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are excited to extend this project through a one-year No-Cost Extension through January 31, 2024, as well as a budget modification. These amendments, in combination with shifting pandemic restrictions, will allow us to expand our project to include in-person outreach and programming. We are working in collaboration with trusted partners at La Semilla Food Center, El Departamento de la Comida (El Departamento), and others to host a series of Spanish-interpreted PSA-aligned trainings in Puerto Rico in November 2023, facilitated by our very own Food Safety Fellows. These trainings will include three sessions, 1) Informing Standard Operating Procedures for El Departamento's storage facility, 2) A hands-on training on building affordable handwashing stations, and 3) a PSA-aligned food safety training for area growers. This training is specifically tailored to meet the food safety needs of small-scale production farmers young in Puerto Rico (at no cost to them) and to grow our fellows' experience. Puerto Rico provides a unique opportunity to incorporate PSA-aligned practices into production sites that are smaller scale. 87% of farms in Puerto Rico produce less than $25,000 in produce annually, according to the 2017 National Agricultural Statistics Service. Designed with this local context in mind, our in-person training centers peer-to-peer and hands-on learning opportunities to demonstrate the importance and applicability of PSA practices at the local scale. Participants will work together to design and build a handwashing station, equipping them with the skills to replicate the project on their own farms, as well as an in-depth understanding of the importance of food safety infrastructure. In their role as facilitators, our Fellows will likewise grow their expertise as educators in an in-person context.? We are working closely with Puerto Rico-based El Departamento to host this event, as well as partners at La Semilla Food Center (New Mexico-based), Universe City (New York City-based), and the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Bringing regionally diverse partners to this project lays the groundwork for continued collaboration between them, even after the end of this grant period. Building trust and relationships between organizations, fellows, and farmers constitutes an important outcome of this project. At the small scale, food safety can be conceptualized as a kind of "community care." We're building a communications campaign predicated upon this idea, inspired by farmers. In the coming reporting period, we'll continue to grow this campaign and strengthen it with the support of the Young Farmers Communications Team, which will provide consulting services to the two partner organizations, centering cultural appropriateness in outreach about food safety issues. With support, participants and partners at our in-person training will co-create photo, video, and audio assets documenting the event for Young Farmers' social media, website, and newsletter. These assets will be transferred to our partner organizations, who will continue to use them following the end of the grant period. With these activities, we will make food safety education more accessible, culturally relevant, and equitable, and will position food safety education as an act of community care.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the reporting period, we worked with PSA to offer a two-part virtual training on food safety and FSMA compliance. Of 29 registrants, 23 attended; an impressive conversion rate that speaks to the high degree of interest among farmers in interactive, online training on this crucial subject. In a follow-up survey, 95% of participants agreed that the module increased their knowledge of produce safety requirements. These interactions and feedback have deepened our understanding of food safety relevancy for farmers and opportunities for us to support them. We continued to engage four Food Safety Fellows as food safety leaders and grow our peer-to-peer training opportunities to engage a broader farmer audience. ?
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:For most beginning farmers, resource constraints define their fledgling businesses. Lack of access to critical business resources is the overarching message from the over 3,500 farmers surveyed in the 2017 Building a Future with Farmers II report published by the National Young Farmers Coalition. From negotiating land tenure and managing student loan debt to navigating food safety practices, beginning farmers are challenged with business planning under financial constraints (Ackoff et al., 2017). While all farmers understand both the immediate and long-term benefits of robust produce safety plans and procedures, the implementation of food safety plans can be a challenge. Allocating time for thorough training as well as dedicating financial resources to infrastructure that does not provide an immediate return on investment can be a logistical impossibility for young and beginning farmers. Based on FDA estimates for produce safety compliance, farmers not operating on a large farm may incur compliance costs equivalent to 6.77% of average annual gross sales (Bovay et al., 2018). This can be significant for beginning operations, especially as beginning farmers face significant cash-flow challenges in earlier years. With the 2017 Census of Agriculture finding that only 15% of farms with a principal producer as a new and beginning producer generate over $50,000 in annual sales, the priority for beginning farmers often is income growth and increased profitability (2017 Census of Agriculture). The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), in particular the Produce Safety Rule (PSR), directed farmers to improve their food safety practices and enforced new requirements for farming operations. However, the Coalition's engagement with over 1,600 farmers in the past two years has revealed that there remains a relative unawareness of FSMA and its applicability to smaller farms. Given the small scope of beginning farm operations and the Coalition's on-the-ground observations, many young and beginning farmers are qualified exempt from FSMA. And so, while the FDA and USDA have done exceptional work to support a national network of experts, guides, and mentors for farmers, these agencies have justifiably prioritized engagement with major producers and large farms over beginning farmers who do not exceed the necessary thresholds for full compliance. Beginning produce farmers across the country, many of whom report needing better support with business planning and operational guidance, are the target audience for this proposal (Ackoff et al., 2017). Our pre-COVID plan for 2020-2022 targeted 4 specific regions and 12 of our farmer chapters, but online programming since Spring 2020 has allowed farmers nationwide to access our programming about produce safety, reaching out to various farm service and support agencies, regional centers, individual farmers, farmer networks, and produce safety partners. In addition, we are working to build the network of food safety trainers and leaders who are representative of the small farmers that we work with; this includes small farmers not subject to the Produce Rule, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and queer farmers, and cooperative farmers. Furthermore, at the Southern Region Integrated Produce Safety Conference in October 2020, it was explained that there is a significant lack of BIPOC Produce Safety Alliance lead trainers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in southern states (in fact, seven HBCU institutions reported that they do not have any BIPOC lead food safety trainers on staff). This information only reinforces the importance of the audience we are working with through this Food Safety Outreach Program funding. The National Young Farmers Coalition, both in food safety trainingand organization-wide, works to center BIPOC farmer voices and shift power in the agricultural sector. Activities associated with this grant including the food safety plan writing class and food safety fellowship were promoted through Young Farmers channels, which include the fellowship landing page of our website (www.youngfarmers.org/fellowship, social media (Facebook: 74k followers, Instagram: 66.4k followers, and Twitter: 17.8k followers), direct communication with the chapter leaders of our 50 chapters in 32 states, chapter and network-wide newsletters (24,584 newsletter subscribers), our National Leadership Committee listserv (303 farmers), and our food safety listserv (91 organizations and individuals). Farmers of any scale or marketing approach were invited to participate, but 100% of our food safety fellows are running or working on farms less than 10 acres in size, growing diversified vegetables, and marketing and selling direct to consumers through CSAs, farm shares, farm stands, or farmers markets. Only one reported needing to receive a FSMA inspection or pursuing a HGAP+ audit. Changes/Problems:As the pandemic continues to limit in-person gatherings and travel, we extended our virtual efforts throughout 2022. 2021 and 2022 also saw the transition of three Young Farmers Food Safety Project staff, which affected the scope and timeline of our shared projects. We made necessary adjustments to the project, allowing us to continue to reach more farmers with food safety trainings, and in many cases, expanded and enhanced our outreach and training. For example, in lieu of Young Farmers staff conducting regional food safety trainings, in-person mentorship, and walk-throughs across the country, we shifted our focus to building up food safety experts who can continue our work nationally by working in their local areas. In the spring of 2021, we launched a food safety fellowship program with 11 majority BIPOC-QT (Black, Indigenous, people of color, queer and trans) farmers from across the country. This fellowship resources the next generation of food safety leaders in the field who can move on to be service providers in their own communities. In addition, we planned for each section of the Food Safety Plan Template to be accompanied by guided, recorded training. Instead, due to staff limitations, we matched audio from fifteen farmer interviews about food safety to topics within the food safety plan template and converted interviews into a podcast and companion to the Food Safety Plan Template. Overall, despite unforeseen challenges with the pandemic and staff transitions, we have been able to maintain our overarching goals of providing farmer-centered food safety training and leadership development and continue to create and curate relevant resources that meet the needs of our small farmer network. In addition, moving our platform to a virtual setting has provided us the opportunity to reimagine our work and build out our food safety subject matter experts and trainers (through our fellowship program) to include farmers that are typically underrepresented in food safety work nationally (specifically BIPOC-QT, urban, farmer-centered, not subject to FSMA Produce Rule). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided generous opportunities for staff and farmers in our network to learn and enhance our food safety technical skills, develop educational techniques that are relevant, accessible and engaging to our primary audiences, and stay on the pulse of what is most helpful and needed to support and promote farm food safety practices through ongoing farmer feedback. The Food Safety Plan workshops provided us with the opportunity to engage with farmers about details of food safety plan writing. These interactions and feedback have deepened our understanding of food safety relevancy for farmers and opportunities for us to support. Through the Food Safety Fellowship program, Young Farmers staff and fellows attended an Introduction to Popular Education series and learned the history and theory of accessible education as well as facilitation skills. Through the Produce Safety Alliance Train the Trainer course, staff and fellows alike become certified PSA trainers, with three fellows beginning their applications for Lead Trainer status. The fellowship also provided staff the opportunity to improve their food safety walk-through interview skills by working one on one with the eleven fellows, focusing on various aspects of their operations. Through the Food Safety Plan Template development and farmer interviews, staff were able to sharpen their own food safety writing skills, and ability to convey the importance of food safety in operations, and learn from farmers the various and unique ways to practice food safety on the farm. The only way to improve presentation and facilitation skills is to practice. By co-Teaching virtual PSA Grower trainings with Billy Mitchell (PSA Lead Trainer), to Unadilla Farm interns, fellows learned invaluable lessons about presenting PSA findings and FSMA regulations to small vegetable farms. Under the guidance of Billy, the fellows had the opportunity to practice fielding questions and providing risk mitigation strategies to beginning growers. One fellow attended the Cornell Advanced Trainer Workshop Training in New York in June 2022. They have already incorporated lessons from this training into their work. For example, tips from the "Instructor Tips for Participant Engagement" have been used during their presentation and opened the door for trust building and discussion among PSA Grower Training participants. We have been working with Cornell's PSA team to provide "deep dive workshops" on particular subjects. Two have already concluded, covering topics such as sanitation and donations from school and community gardens. Not only do these trainings deepen the technical skills of the fellows so that they can be a better resource for the farmers they come into contact with, they also have an avenue to add more educational resources to the virtual food safety cache. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of this project will be detailed in our final report to NIFA. Resources created through this project, including the food safety template and sign making tool are posted in our online produce safety library and available for any farmer. We shared the food safety plan resources through our chapter newsletter and with our network of followers via social media. During the reporting period, our online food safety resources and fellowships pages have received more than 12,000 page views combined. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have extended this project through a one-year No-Cost Extension through September 2023. This extension was requested due to the delays in changes to the project as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as shifting personnel on the grant. ? Professional development opportunities will continue for the fellows during year 3. The upcoming PSA Deep Dive topics to be taught include Subpart E Agricultural Water and development of hands-on kits. Additionally, fellows who have not yet attended will be eligible to attend the Advanced Training, to be held in Florida this February. In late-August 2022, we began the planning of a PSA Grower Training for the National Young Farmers Coalition network and found that there was significant interest in this type of training among farmers in our network. With more than 20 registrations, we feel that this may be a successful strategy for reaching small farmers to share important PSA food safety training even though they may not be covered or exempt from FSMA regulations. Co-teaching also provides ongoing practice opportunities to fellows, especially those interested in becoming lead trainers. Continuing with the theme of providing farmer-to-farmer trainings, fellows can opt-in to organizing and providing a Food Safety Planning Workshop. These are to be based in PSA-approved teachings, with a focus on risk mitigation and food safety for small-scale producers.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: Conduct regional food safety tours that reach a variety of farmers To adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, we pivoted to virtual programming allowing us to extend our reach with our food safety trainings and expand our base of food safety subject matter experts through the development of a food safety fellowship program. The Food Safety Fellowship included 11 fellows from Washington, California, Kansas, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, Arizona, Texas and New York. The fellows spent 9 months (March 2021 - December 2021) enriching and honing their food safety comprehension and skills to be applied directly to their farming operations and to become on-farm food safety experts and resources to their farming communities. The recruitment of the fellows emphasized community involvement and commitment to providing educational opportunities. The fellowship included numerous opportunities for training in food safety curriculum, including facilitation skills training provided by consultant Ravi Ramaswamy, who has worked with Farm School NYC and other farming organizations, a train the trainer series with the Produce Safety Alliance in which all 10 fellows became certified Produce Safety trainers, ongoing consultation with PSA core staff in food safety technical terms, food safety walk-throughs lead by Young Farmers staff, educational and teaching opportunities (at conferences, through invitations to assist in PSA trainings, events put on in their farming communities), and resources to be housed in our Produce Resource Library. The national fellowship model greatly expands the impact of our food safety skills training by producing fellows who are food safety experts in their own right and who can be called upon to provide one-on-one mentorship and provide regional technical assistance. Six fellows have continued for a second year of the Fellowship. During this time, they have continued to build out their technical knowledge, and provided food safety trainings to farmers around the country. One fellow provided two, two-day community-based "Food Safety Plan Writing Workshops" to the Chicago-area urban farming community in February of 2022. The workshop was unique in that it integrated Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) practices while simultaneously appealing to growers across skill levels in farming and varied experience with food safety practices. These community-based workshops bring established food safety best practices to farmers who are often harder to reach by delivering the information via farmers like them who are also operating on smaller scales. These workshops reached a total of 36 participants. As a result of these workshops, this fellow has worked directly with seven farmers to coach them on writing food safety plans or implementing food safety practices on their farm. Eleven of the 14 participants who responded to a survey found the workshop to be very helpful. Although other fellows have expressed interest in organizing Food Safety Plan Writing Workshops, support on logistics (for example, registration and meeting spaces) has been identified as a barrier to implementation. This insight will allow us to strategize to identify local partner organizations to support the fellows on logistics so that they can focus on preparing and providing educational materials. During the course of the year, one fellow attended the Advanced Produce Safety Alliance Training held June 14-16, 2022 at Cornell AgriTech at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. Cornell's Produce Safety Alliance team has provided two "Deep Dive" workshops into food safety topics to our fellows, including Principles of Sanitation and Food Safety at School/Community Gardens. This will continue into the third year. From May - July 2022, fellows co-taught three virtual PSA Grower trainings to interns at Unadilla Farm in New York with support from Lead Trainer, Billy Mitchell. In addition to providing this training to 20 interns, Billy provided technical assistance to the farm on matters relating to food safety. Objective 2. Provide an online, interactive, farmer-to-farmer food safety course We met the goals in Objective 2 in this FY21. In the spring of 2021, we held a Food Safety Plan writing class for 20 farmers. Participants began writing their food safety plans and standard operating procedures and provided guidance for Young Farmers staff to create a food safety plan template geared toward small farmers not subject to the FSMA Produce Rule. The food safety plan template was developed over the spring and summer of 2021, and completed in August 2021. It was reviewed and vetted by staff at the Produce Safety Alliance. In addition to the template, we conducted 15 interviews with farmers across the country around their food safety practices focusing on specific modules of the food safety plan. These recordings were edited into a podcast format and are embedded into the food safety plan template so that farmers utilizing the resource can be guided through by listening to these interviews. In addition to the template, an interactive on-farm food safety sign making tool is housed in the Young Farmers' Produce Safety Resources library, available to all. Objective 3. Collect and create farmer-focused produce safety content in a database of best practices, tipsheets, and brief guides We are on schedule to reach our Objective 3 goal by the end of the grant. Resource collection is ongoing, and throughout our farmer interactions, Young Farmers staff constantly enrich our understanding of farmers' produce safety needs, and how our Resource Library can support their growth. This year we have uploaded a dozen produce safety resources, including 3 tipsheets that we created based on identifying a lack of guidance for farmers in areas ranging from rainwater catchment and use, aggregated CSAs and visitor/volunteer policy. In addition, our Food Safety Fellows are creating unique resources and tipsheets based on their year of food safety training to be housed in our Resource Library, as well. In 2022, 3,012 farmers utilized food safety resources from our Produce Safety Online Resource Library and 371 farmers downloaded our Food Safety Guidebook to help them improve produce safety practices on their operations. The top visited resource was guidelines for portable handwashing stations, with 384 downloads.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:For most beginning farmers, resource constraints define their fledgling businesses. Lack of access to critical business resources is the overarching message from the over 3,500 farmers surveyed in the 2017 Building a Future with Farmers II report published by the National Young Farmers Coalition. From negotiating land tenure and managing student loan debt to navigating food safety practices, beginning farmers are challenged with business planning under financial constraints (Ackoff et al., 2017). While all farmers understand both the immediate and long-term benefits of robust produce safety plans and procedures, the implementation of food safety plans can be a challenge. Allocating time for thorough training as well as dedicating financial resources to infrastructure that does not provide an immediate return on investment can be a logistical impossibility for young and beginning farmers. Based on FDA estimates for produce safety compliance, farmers not operating on a large farm may incur compliance costs equivalent to 6.77% of average annual gross sales (Bovay et al., 2018). This can be significant for beginning operations, especially as beginning farmers face significant cash-flow challenges in earlier years. With the 2017 Census of Agriculture finding that only 15% of farms with a principal producer as a new and beginning producer generate over $50,000 in annual sales, the priority for beginning farmers often is income growth and increased profitability (2017 Census of Agriculture). The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), in particular the Produce Safety Rule (PSR), directed farmers to improve their food safety practices and enforced new requirements for farming operations. However, the Coalition's engagement with over 1,600 farmers in the past two years has revealed that there remains a relative unawareness of FSMA and its applicability to smaller farms. Given the small scope of beginning farm operations and the Coalition's on-the-ground observations, many young and beginning farmers are qualified exempt from FSMA. And so, while the FDA and USDA have done exceptional work to support a national network of experts, guides, and mentors for farmers, these agencies have justifiably prioritized engagement with major producers and large farms over beginning farmers who do not exceed the necessary thresholds for full compliance. Beginning produce farmers across the country, many of whom report needing better support with business planning and operational guidance, are the target audience for this proposal (Ackoff et al., 2017). Our pre-COVID plan for 2020-2022 targeted 4 specific regions and 12 of our farmer chapters, but online programming since Spring 2020 has allowed farmers nationwide to access our programming about produce safety, reaching out to various farm service and support agencies, regional centers, individual farmers, farmer networks, and produce safety partners. In addition, we are working to build the network of food safety trainers and leaders who are representative of the small farmers that we work with; this includes small farmers not subject to the Produce Rule, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and queer farmers, and cooperative farmers. Furthermore, at the Southern Region Integrated Produce Safety Conference in October 2020, it was explained that there is a significant lack of BIPOC Produce Safety Alliance lead trainers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in southern states (in fact, seven HBCU institutions reported that they do not have any BIPOC lead food safety trainers on staff). This information only reinforces the importance of the audience we are working with through this Food Safety Outreach Program funding. The National Young Farmers Coalition, both in food safety training and organization-wide, works to center BIPOC farmer voices and shift power in the agricultural sector. Activities associated with this grant including the food safety plan writing class and food safety fellowship were promoted through Young Farmers channels, which include the fellowship landing page of our website (www.youngfarmers.org/fellowship, social media (Facebook: 74k followers, Instagram: 66.4k followers, and Twitter: 17.8k followers), direct communication with the chapter leaders of our 50 chapters in 32 states, chapter and network-wide newsletters (24,584 newsletter subscribers), our National Leadership Committee listserv (303 farmers), and our food safety listserv (91 organizations and individuals). Farmers of any scale or marketing approach were invited to participate, but 100% of our food safety fellows are running or working on farms less than 10 acres in size, growing diversified vegetables, and marketing and selling direct to consumers through CSAs, farm shares, farm stands, or farmers markets. Only one reported needing to receive a FSMA inspection or pursuing a HGAP+ audit. Changes/Problems:As the pandemic continues to limit in-person gatherings and travel, we have extended our virtual efforts throughout 2021. In lieu of Young Farmers staff conducting regional food safety trainings and in-person mentorship and walk-throughs across the country, we shifted our focus to building up food safety experts who can continue our work nationally by working in their local areas. In the spring of 2021, we launched a food safety fellowship program with 11 majority BIPOC-QT farmers from across the country. The farmer- centered fellowship embodies Young Farmers' values. It is our hope that through this fellowship, we are resourcing the next generation of food safety leaders in the field who can move on to be service providers in their own communities. 2021 also saw the transition of two Young Farmers Food Safety Project staff, which affected the scope and timeline of our shared projects. Originally, we planned for each section of the Food Safety Plan Template to be accompanied by guided, recorded training. Instead, due to staff limitations, we matched audio from fifteen farmer interviews about food safety to topics within the food safety plan template and converted interviews into a podcast and companion to the Food Safety Plan Template. We also planned to host a farm food safety sign-making workshop to correspond with the sign-making tool; however, due to staff shortages we were unable to. Instead, the sign tool is hosted on its own website linked to the Young Farmers' website with a comprehensive training video by the designer that walks farmers through the features of the tool. Overall, despite unforeseen challenges with the pandemic and staff transitions, we have been able to maintain our overarching goals of providing farmer-centered food safety training and leadership development and continue to create and curate relevant resources that meet the needs of our small farmer network. In addition, moving our platform to a virtual setting has provided us the opportunity to reimagine our work and build out our food safety subject matter experts and trainers (through our fellowship program) to include farmers that are typically underrepresented in food safety work nationally (specifically BIPOC-QT, urban, farmer-centered, not subject to FSMA Produce Rule). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided generous opportunities for staff and farmers in our network to learn and enhance our food safety technical skills, develop educational techniques that are relevant, accessible and engaging to our primary audiences, and stay on the pulse of what is most helpful and needed to support and promote farm food safety practices through ongoing farmer feedback. The Food Safety Plan workshops provided us with the opportunity to engage with farmers about details of food safety plan writing. These interactions and feedback have deepened our understanding of food safety relevancy for farmers and opportunities for us to support. Through the Food Safety Fellowship program, Young Farmers staff and fellows attended an Introduction to Popular Education series and learned the history and theory of accessible education as well as facilitation skills. Through the Produce Safety Alliance Train the Trainer course, staff and fellows alike become certified PSA trainers, with three fellows beginning their applications for Lead Trainer status. The fellowship also provided staff the opportunity to improve their food safety walk-through interview skills by working one on one with the eleven fellows, focusing on various aspects of their operations. Through the Food Safety Plan Template development and farmer interviews, staff were able to sharpen their own food safety writing skills, and ability to convey the importance of food safety in operations, and learn from farmers the various and unique ways to practice food safety on the farm. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of this project will be detailed in our final report to NIFA. Resources created through this project, including the food safety template and sign making tool are posted in our online produce safety library and available for any farmer. We will also share the food safety plan resources through our chapter newsletter and with our network of followers via social media. During the reporting period, our online food safety resources and fellowships pages have received more than 1,400 page views combined. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we plan to encourage farmers to hold writing work groups around the completed Food Safety Plan guide and audio companion. We will hold office hours for farmers working through the guide and potentially host guided workshops based on the interest of farmer cohorts. We will continue to create, curate, and share produce safety resources with young farmers across the country through our online produce safety library. Based on what we have heard through farmer feedback and interviews, we will determine what other resources need to be created, or what needs to be adapted, to meet farmers' evolving needs. Building upon the skills of the inaugural food safety fellowship cohort, we will offer fellows the opportunity to continue into a second year. Fellows will continue to strengthen their food safety skill set and knowledge through continued partnership and training with the Produce Safety Alliance, opportunities for fellow-led workshops and trainings supported by YF staff, ability for fellows to engage in Young Farmers' national food safety work through creating resources and curating our Food Safety Resource Library. The goal of the second year of the fellowship is to create a collective of farmer-centered Food Safety experts who can be resources for the Young Farmer network across the country, offering similar services that Young Farmers has in the past, such as food safety trainings and workshops, farm walk-throughs and food safety mentorship.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: Conduct regional food safety tours that reach a variety of farmers Our ability to meet the goals of Objective 1 were hindered by the ongoing global pandemic and travel limitations, however, our pivot to virtual programming allowed us to extend the nationwide reach of our food safety trainings and expand our base of food safety subject matter experts through the development of a food safety fellowship program. The Food Safety Fellowship includes 11 fellows from Washington, California, Kansas, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, Arizona, Texas and New York. The fellows are spending 9 months (March 2021 - December 2021) enriching and honing their food safety comprehension and skills to be applied directly to their farming operations and to become on-farm food safety experts and resources to their farming communities. The recruitment of the fellows emphasized community involvement and commitment to providing educational opportunities. The fellowship includes numerous opportunities for training in food safety curriculum, including facilitation skills training provided by consultant Ravi Ramaswamy, who has worked with Farm School NYC and other farming organizations, a train the trainer series with the Produce Safety Alliance in which all 10 fellows became certified Produce Safety trainers, ongoing consultation with PSA core staff in food safety technical terms, food safety walk-throughs lead by Young Farmers staff, educational and teaching opportunities (at conferences, through invitations to assist in PSA trainings, events put on in their farming communities), and resources to be housed in our Produce Resource Library. The national fellowship model greatly expands the impact of our food safety skills training by producing fellows who are food safety experts in their own right and who can be called upon to provide one-on-one mentorship and provide regional technical assistance. Objective 2. Provide an online, interactive, farmer-to-farmer food safety course We were able to meet the goals in Objective 2 in this fiscal year. In the spring of 2021, we held a Food Safety Plan writing class for 20 farmers. Participants began writing their food safety plans and standard operating procedures and provided guidance for Young Farmers staff to create a food safety plan template geared toward small farmers not subject to the FSMA Produce Rule. The food safety plan template was developed over the spring and summer of 2021, and completed in August 2021. It has been reviewed and vetted by staff at the Produce Safety Alliance. In addition to the template, we conducted 15 interviews with farmers across the country around their food safety practices focusing on specific modules of the food safety plan. These recordings were edited into a podcast format and are embedded into the food safety plan template so that farmers utilizing the resource can be guided through by listening to these interviews. In addition to the template, an interactive on-farm food safety sign making tool is housed in the Young Farmers' Produce Safety Resources library, available to all. Objective 3. Collect and create farmer-focused produce safety content in a database of best practices, tipsheets, and brief guides We are on schedule to reach our Objective 3 goal by the end of fiscal year three. Resource collection is ongoing, and throughout our farmer interactions, Young Farmers staff constantly enrich our understanding of farmers' produce safety needs, and how our Resource Library can support their growth. This year we have uploaded a dozen produce safety resources, including 3 tipsheets that we created based on identifying a lack of guidance for farmers in areas ranging from rainwater catchment and use, aggregated CSAs and visitor/volunteer policy. In addition, our Food Safety Fellows are creating unique resources and tipsheets based on their year of food safety training to be housed in our Resource Library, as well.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this proposal is beginning produce farmers across the country, many of whom report needing better support with business planning and operational guidance (Ackoff et al., 2017). Our pre-COVID plan for 2020 targeted 4 specific regions and 12 of our farmer chapters, but when we shifted programming online in the spring, we were able to allow farmers nationwide to access our programming about produce safety, reaching out to various farm service and support agencies, the regional centers, individual farmers, farmer networks, produce safety partners. Roundtables were promoted through Young Farmers channels, which include the focus group (roundtable) landing page of our website (www.youngfarmers.org/focusgroups), social media (Facebook: 67,932 followers, Instagram: 62,023 followers, and Twitter: 16,463 followers), direct communication with the chapter leaders of our 46 chapters, chapter and network-wide newsletters (23,251 newsletter subscribers), our National Leadership Committee listserv (309 farmers), and our food safety listserv (91 organizations and individuals). Farmers of any scale or marketing approach were invited to participate, but 84% of attendees are running or working on farms less than 10 acres in size, growing diversified vegetables, and marketing and selling direct to consumer, such as through CSAs, farmshares, farm stands, or farmers markets. 50% reported needing to receive a FSMA inspection or GAP audit. Specific roundtable topics also attracted farmers using direct marketing methods and selling specialty crops through CSAs, educational farms, urban farms, hydroponic/aquaponic operations, and farm to school. Changes/Problems:Due to Covid-19, we had to shift our programming substantially. By the time travel restrictions were put in place, we had fully planned the first two tours of our spring training season and conducted significant outreach for the others. This planning included working with chapters to choose and plan 6 deeper dive workshops, including "Wash and Pack Station design," "A Small Farmer's Guide to Produce Safety," and "Worker and Volunteer Training." We identified and created partnerships with 3 farmer hosts for one-on-one walkthroughs and 6 farmer hosts for group walkthroughs. To host the full-day PSA grower trainings, we had locations solidified, partners identified, other trainers selected, and paperwork for registration completed. Outreach for events had begun and farmers were signing up. Most of our travel arrangements were reserved. By March 14th, we cancelled or postponed all of our travel arrangements and notified partners and registrants. Everyone who paid was refunded in full. We provided one-on-one consultations to farmers directly as concerns about COVID-19 arose. We had originally planned to do our trainings during the spring because we knew this was a time that farmers weren't yet busy with their growing season. Because we could not execute as planned and it took some time to re-imagine our project, we ended up doing it at the height of the growing season. This, compounded by the stress of COVID-19, political unrest around the country, and exhaustion as farmers tried to confront this demanding season, limited the number of farmers that could attend. Despite outreach and stipends, our roundtables were more sparsely attended than we'd hoped. This allowed for a more intimate discussion amongst the farmers but did not meet the same goals of farmers reached as we had aimed for with our tours. Furthermore, as more and more educators, services providers, extension agents, and support organizations moved their programming online, we found that farmers began to experience Zoom fatigue, as did we. Originally when we made the switch to the roundtables, we wanted to create a space where farmers hear from and discuss on-farm produce safety practices with one another. We did not imagine the capacity we would be building within our farmer facilitators to be educators in their own right. We want to continue to build this capacity in farmers so that they themselves can be produce safety resources for their local grower community. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As we moved programming online, we participated in a facilitation training through the Nonprofit Learning Lab and connected with colleagues around the country about best practices for virtual delivery. Participation in the food safety roundtables has provided the opportunity to engage with the practical and daily on-farm produce safety challenges and solutions facing smaller-scale, diversified farmers. It has also provided the opportunity to connect food safety basics to COVID-19 concerns. The development of a curriculum and food safety plan template has provided the opportunity to deepen practical food safety knowledge and explore new ways to teach concepts. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of this project will be detailed in our final report to NIFA. Resources created through this project, including the podcasts of each roundtable, are posted in our online produce safety library and available for any farmer. With outreach for each roundtable, farmers were encouraged to seek out the resulting recording. A project update was shared at the National FSOP Project Directors Meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next fiscal year, Young Farmers will offer the online food safety plan class created in 2020. We will recruit farmers to participate in this online course in real time, allowing "office hours" where we can provide more direct resources or education to encourage the creation of a finalized food safety plan. This course, unlike most other available courses, is created to address the needs of farmers who do not face regulatory compliance. We will continue to create, curate, and share produce safety resources with young farmers across the country through our online produce safety library. Once the recordings of the roundtables and subject matter expert interviews have been edited, they will be uploaded to the resource library as well. Based on what we heard in the roundtables and continued research with farmers, we will determine what else needs to be created, or what needs to be adapted, to meet farmers' evolving needs. Our first year of this project, like many other FSOP projects and the world in general, was dramatically altered by COVID-19 and the travel restrictions. We were unable to execute our four produce safety tours. For FY2, we will also need to shift approaches to keep farmers and staff safe, specifically the in person workshops. We will adhere to the original aims of the proposal by prioritizing beginning farmer priorities and circumstances, highlighting the lived experience and expertise of farmers, and connecting produce safety with other farmer priorities. We plan to increase knowledge and capacity within a cohort of produce safety focused farmers, enabling them to share their skills and expertise with their community.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. The goal of the project is to support beginning farmers in successfully building and scaling their farm operations by providing them with the practical trainings and resources they need to effectively, efficiently, and confidently invest in the processes and infrastructure that will enable them to reduce food safety risks. Due to COVID-19, we pivoted from four in-person spring training tours to a series of farmer-led virtual roundtable discussions nationwide. Each roundtable was facilitated by a farmer and centered a farm food safety topic. These discussions were semi-structured, providing a depth of information on food safety practices according to farms' growing methods, business structures, and market channels. We began with a presentation by the farmer facilitator followed by a roundtable discussion in which the farmer participants could engage with one another and the topic. Topics included: CSA/Farmshare Distribution during COVID-19 (x 2) Worker Training & Produce Safety Managing Produce Safety Risks Associated with Rotating Livestock through Produce Fields Produce Safety for Farm to School Produce Safety for Urban Farms Produce Safety for Hydroponic (& Aquaponic) Operations Making SOPs that Work for Your Farm Scaling Produce Safety Practices with Your Farm Operation Creating a Culture of Produce Safety on Your Farm Produce Safety Building Blocks in Year 1 Produce Safety for Educational Farms Lean & Clean (Applying Lean Farming Principles to Produce Safety) Developing a Farm Food Safety Plan using the Young Farmers Guidebook Produce Safety Misconceptions Food Safety for Urban Produce Aggregation and Distribution Recordkeeping for Postharvest Activities ?We worked with 17 farmers over the course of the June, July, and August in preparation to fill the roundtable facilitator role and built their capacity as educators. Materials that they developed for their farm operations then became educational materials for the farmer participants, whether it was standard operating procedures (SOPs), farm sanitation practices, farm food safety plans, or various logs and templates. The roundtable model promoted peer-to-peer learning, and, as a result, approximately two-thirds of evaluation respondents felt prepared to make changes that will improve food safety on their farm and 94% reported the topic of the roundtable was relevant to their farm. One respondent said:"Hours of research and trying to contact other farms went into creating our newCOVID protocols, but I still feel really unsure about them. Was helpful to getrealistic views of what other small, direct-to-consumer farms are doing. I will be making some changes that will make things easier, more affordable, and ... safer for everyone." Still another respondent answered the question "What knowledge did you gain?" with, "A better understanding of how SOPs can benefit my farming practices, and where they might fit into my farm business." Another shared, "I feel more confident in writing up a food safety plan and creating signage, materials, and an approach as if I were a teacher in a classroom." Each roundtable was recorded and will be edited down and released under the Young Farmers Food Safety Podcast, which will be accessible through Spotify and the FSMA resource library on our website. In addition to the roundtables, we recorded three Subject Matter Expert interviews around farm food safety topics: cleaning & sanitizing; hygienic/sanitary design; and Group GAP certification. These interviews will also be released as podcast episodes, expanding the multimedia options of our resource library. The discussions created a platform of support for interactive engagement on how each participant's food safety practices could be enhanced and barriers to building more robust food safety practices diminished. The project was executed nationwide, through a grassroots network of 46 farmer chapters in 27 states, connecting farmers through a virtual platform which can serve as an additional mode of connection going forward. 2. Our online Food Safety Plan course curriculum was developed and reviewed. Due to the late release of funds and the need to provide trainings in the winter when farmers can participate, we extended the timeline on delivery to Jan of 2021. This also created time to solicit input on the delivery of this course from outside experts and farmers. The curriculum has been reviewed by the Produce Safety Alliance. 3. Resource collection is ongoing. When COVID-19 hit, we pivoted to focus on resources that specifically addressed how to move through the pandemic. We uploaded 26 relevant produce safety resources to our COVID-19 Resource Library because we knew that is where farmers in our network would be looking for them. The format of the roundtable discussions and the evaluation conducted with each highlighted key areas where young farmers' produce safety needs are yet unmet and will inform our resource creation and collation through the rest of the grant cycle.
Publications
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