DEFINING & OVERCOMING ECONOMIC FACTORS HINDERING ADOPTION OF FOOD SAFETY PRACTICES BY SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED FARMS IN THE NEW ENGLAND REGION

Goals: The goal of this program is to increase produce growers' food safety knowledge and design supports for adopting scale-appropriate Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) that will reduce the overall risk of foodborne illness and increase access to local and regional wholesale markets. Our long-term project goal is to increase the number of fresh produce growers adopting on-farm produce safety practices in order to improve the economic viability of small and medium-size farms in New England. Expanding produce safety curriculum to exempt growers will enhance or maintain market access for small and medium-sized New England farms. These results may be adapted to enhance the development of local food systems in other regions.Supporting Objectives: This integrated project has the following four objectives, with three applied research objectives supporting a central Extension objective:1. Assess farmer perceptions and beliefs about the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) food safety practices and determine sufficient economic incentives to adopt them, and measure and verify benchmarks for on-farm costs of meeting PSA food safety procedures.2. Model how the above strategies can increase local markets for produce growers by measuring consumer perceptions, beliefs and willingness to pay for food safety attributes and create marketing materials based on results.3. Measure the economic impact of a potential increase in the regional provision of produce resulting from farmers who decide to scale-up rather than remain small as a way of avoiding FSMA regulation. This objective has been removed.4. Adapt the delivery of PSA curricula by developing audience-appropriate food safety training that addresses farmer learning and information needs that includes implementation costs (Objective 1), consumer demand for food safety attributes (Objective 2), and regional market impact information (Objective 3). Pilot the revised delivery of PSA curricula and collect farmer feedback.Objectives 1 and 2 have been completed and a plan is in place to prepare for Objective 4.