Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE
(N/A)
ORONO,ME 04469
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The University of Maine Cooperative Extension (UMCE) and the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension (UNHCE) will collaborate to provide one-on-one Farm Food Safety Plan (FFSP) writing assistance and on-farm produce safety risk assessments (PSRA) to small and medium-sized produce farms in both states. This project aims to provide a solid foundation for PSRA and FFSP writing and will be executed by an experienced farm produce safety educator in each state with two food safety experts' support.UMCE and UNHCE will produce a "Jumpstart to Farm Food Safety'' webinar series and website to inform regional growers that a Cooperative Extension educator in each state is available for, and how their farm can benefit from one-on-one consultations for a PSRA on their farm and one-on-one FFSP writing assistance, as well as how to sign up for a consultation. These resources will be distributed through both states' partner organizations to target produce farmers farming with organic practices, mainstream, women, disabled and veteran farmers. In addition, farmers will be offered a "Jumpstart Incentive Package" to participate in the project with produce safety supplies. The website will be the landing page for all resources developed during this project, including webinars' recordings, registration for participation in the project, FFSP resources, and examples of FFSPs completed by farmers. In addition, the short video(s) produced in year three of the project will showcase farms' successes in the program, and all results will be shared through multiple outlets, including the NECAFS (The Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety) clearinghouse.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
1. Create a website in the first three months of the project that will be updated throughout the program and serve as a portal for the project and include program advertisements, links to Farm Food Safety Plan templates, farmer-generated examples and other documents, a registration form to sign up for an on-farm visit, and showcase the work conducted during the project. The website will provide links to other organizations that typically work with farmers, such as MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association), NOFA-NH (Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire), farm bureau, food co-ops, and many others. We will also offer links to NECAFS and other regional or national relevant stakeholders.2. Create a webinar series with three online offerings for farmers in the region. One introductory during the first year of the project to present the program's objectives, how we plan to conduct the visits and related work, how to participate in the program, how farmers can register for an on-farm visit, and the expectations for participants. Another one in the second year of the project to share success stories, the challenges we faced so far, and how we intend to move forward and hear feedback from the farmers who already participated and intend to participate. The last one will share more success stories, how we improved during the project, and future steps. These webinars will be recorded and made available on the program's website. We will also share it with our regional partners through the NECAFS Food Safety Clearinghouse.3. Create materials to help farmers meet their food safety needs. This will include three to five short videos (2-5 minutes) showcasing good practices found during the initial on-farm visits, a farm food-safety risk-assessment checklist, and other documents to help farmers in both states to overcome the most significant barriers in creating their Farm Food Safety Plans that are common across the different types of farms in the region and are consistent with the FSMA guidelines. As we identify such barriers, we will post resource materials on the program's website to address them. These resources will also be shared with our regional partners.4. Assist ten farms per year per state (Maine and New Hampshire) for the three years of the project (totaling 60 farms) with their Farm Food Safety Plans. This will include at least one farm visit to help farmers conduct a farm food-safety risk-assessment and use such assessment to develop their Farm Food Safety Plan.
Project Methods
1. Create a websiteUMCE and UNHCE will create a website to advertise this project to growers in both states.The program's website will showcase the work farmers do on their FFSPs with our assistance, common produce safety risks found on farms, and creative solutions farmers have come up with to improve their food safety.The growers that participate in the program will be asked to produce three to five completed sections of a FFSP, and examples of those will be showcased on the website. A post-project video will be produced to showcase growers and their innovative responses to risk management on their farms.All resources, videos, handouts, and websites will be posted and shared with regional partners and on the NECAFS Food Safety Clearinghouse, https://foodsafetyclearinghouse.org/. After the end of the project, the website will be maintained by UMCE and further updated as necessary until the content is relevant for our stakeholders.The website efficacy will be evaulated by the number of visits during the project.2. Create a webinar seriesTogether, UMCE and UNHCE will produce a webinar series titled "Jumpstart to Farm Food Safety" with three parts (60 to 90 minutes), one for each year of the project. The first webinar aims to inform Maine and New Hampshire's growers that a Cooperative Extension educator in each state is available for one-on-one consultations for a produce safety risk assessment on their farm and one-on-one FFSP writing assistance.Registration will be on a first-come-first-served basis. This webinar will be scheduled and recorded using the Zoom platform. Recorded videos on the Zoom platform are securely saved online and accessible only by the webinar hosts. Such videos will be downloaded to a PI/Co-PI for editing. We will let participants know during the registration that their participation in the webinar implies that they consent to us (UMCE and UNHCE) to use their image and voice to create a video that will be available online. This first video, and other promotional materials, will be available on the program's website and distributed through both states' Cooperative Extension outlets, including various commodity groups in the region and partnerships with other agricultural organizations.?The webinars will be evaulated by anonymous surveys at the end of the webinars.3. Create materials to help farmers meet their food safety needsTo help farmers accomplish these higher cognitive skills levels, we will create supporting videos, documents, and tools such as, but not limited to:A farm food safety assessment tool that can help them determine their needs for their FFSP and whether online resources, a phone call, a video call, or an in-person visit is needed. This tool will follow a "checklist" style with clear examples of what types of risks could affect specific items.Parts of and full generic FFSP from common crops in both ME and NH like apples, wild blueberries, etc. These plans will have enough information to help farmers kickstart their plan but will require careful review and adaptation to their farms' specifics.Guides on general best practices when writing a FFSP and its parts.Videos of participating and invited farmers, describing their experience while creating and implementing a food safety culture and a FFSP on their operations.One final video of best practice examples from growers, featuring farmers and their farm food safety plans to be presented at the final webinar.All generated material will be shared online on the program's website and with the NECAFS food safety resources clearinghouse.The materials efficacy will be evaulated by the number of access to those materials during the project.4. Assist ten farms per year per state with their Farm Food Safety Plans.Helping 60 farmers have a FFSP is the primary deliverable for this project. During an initial visit, we will conduct an on-farm food safety risk assessment as a first step to accomplish this goal. This visit is expected to take one to three hours, depending on the operation's size and complexity. The Extension educators will contact farmers to schedule an on-farm visit, and farmers can reschedule their visit once. If farmers, for whatever reason, cancel their second scheduled visit, they will be dropped from the program and will have to register again for another chance of receiving a visit.For the risk assessment, we will focus on the essential aspects as delineated on the FSMA PSR, such as comprehensive worker training, worker health and hygiene, wild and domesticated animals, use of soil amendments, pre- and post-harvest water use, and sanitation of equipment, facilities, and during harvesting and packaging. The visits will follow similar guidelines used during the On-Farm-Readiness-Review program.At the end of this visit, the educator will help the farmer list the risk factors found on their farm and select which risks should be addressed first to have the highest impact on their farm produce safety. The educator will then suggest the three to five parts of the future FFSP that the farmer should tackle first. The farmer will then receive support from the educator, by phone, email, and possible other visits, to work on those initial parts, so the farmer gains the confidence and competence to tackle other parts and expand the plan further during and after the program is over. The plan parts suggested to the farmers to tackle may include, but are not limited to a farm map, farm and products description, an operation flow-diagram, a tested recall plan, staff training plan, SOPs for produce handling in the field, SSOP's for cleaning and sanitizing tools and food contact surfaces in the wash pack area, etc. If farmers decide to create parts of their FFSP in addition or substitution to the ones initially discussed, the educators will provide feedback and orientation throughout the process.We will strongly suggest that farms have someone on staff that participated in a Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) FSMA Produce Safety Grower Training before receiving the on-farm visit. Since this is a three-year project, we will suggest that farmers take the PSA Grower Training before having their visit scheduled. They can do so anywhere they like, but we will allow the participants on this project to take that class when offered by ME or NH Cooperative Extension at just the cost of the manual and certificate (these are provided by third-party partners and have a fixed cost). We will encourage participants to take the training because many of the basic concepts that are covered in that training are necessary for the farmer to become competent in conducting a farm risk assessment and developing a FFSP. It is this team's experience that successful participation in Extension offerings usually requires some sort of "buy-in" from registrants. Anecdotal evidence showed that webinars and other programs have more participants when a nominal fee (like even $5) is charged than when participation is free. Participation in the program we propose will have no charges, but we believe that suggesting participants have taken the PSA Grower Training will help provide some background knowledge and serve as a "buy-in" into the program. Nonetheless, previous participation in the PSA Grower Training will not be mandatory.After the end of the interaction with the farmers, we will invite farmers to take an anonymous survey to measure the efficacy and inpact of the one-on-one assistance in their skills to write FFSPs.The one-on-one assistence will be evaulated by the anonymous survey.