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<p>There are five goals of this project. Within each goal, there are further objectives.</p>
<p>GOAL 1: Identify gaps in knowledge and gaps between knowledge and practice regarding food safety and security in the production and distribution of local/regional foods.</p>
<p>Objective 1a: Survey the range of current production, processing and marketing of current small farmers in the Southeast who sell animal products locally/regionally.</p>
<p>Objective 1b: Determine consumer attitudes toward and beliefs about the safety, availability, quality, affordability and desirability of local/regional foods.</p>
<p>GOAL 2: Identify gaps in food safety practices and develop best practices for production and distribution of local/regional foods.</p>
<p>Objective 2a: Identify potential microbial contamination and cross-contamination routes on farms during production, processing and throughout the supply chain by conducting microbial analysis for water run-off, soil/manure samples and swab samples from process plants and storage areas.</p>
<p>Objective 2b: Analyze and compile data collected from animal farms for best practices.</p>
<p>Objective 2c: Develop new or optimize existing accurate, fast, portable and easy-to-use detection methods for farmers to better understand and monitor water safety during food production.</p>
<p>GOAL 3: Examine the effects of implementing best practices.</p>
<p>Objective 3a: Conduct economic analysis of the impact of implementing best practices.</p>
<p>Objective 3b: Describe and assess perceptions regarding implementing best practices.</p>
<p>GOAL 4: Develop pre-harvest and post-harvest food production and handling training, including food safety, marketing and traceability awareness practices and certification programs. Best practices observed during the data collection phase will be highlighted and concerns expressed by participants will be addressed. The process of disseminating information will begin.</p>
<p>Objective 4a: Create cross-disciplinary modules for incorporation into current university courses for food safety, marketing and food traceability.</p>
<p>GOAL 5: Develop a face-to-face and Web-based information portal for use by Southeast region food and farming industry operators. The portal will provide an overview of food production and handling plans, including food safety, marketing and traceability awareness practices. The portal will describe steps in creating a plan, provide generic plan templates and function as a resource base for those needing to create a plan.</p>
<p>Objective 5a: Create nontraditional learning-style modules for use by Extension agents to teach farmers.</p>
<p>Objective 5b: Conduct training courses as part of certification programs for farming industry operators in food production and handling practices, including food safety, marketing and traceability and best practices to ensure a safer and more secure food supply in the Southeast.</p>
<p>Objective 5c: Develop Web-based modules utilized by people across the U.S. to create farm specific plans for creating a safe and secure food supply.</p>
<p>Objective 5d: Develop and assess teaching modules for consumers, retail employees and hotel, restaurant, and institutional employees to better understand language used in food production.</p>
<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> To address the goal of improving food security by sustaining the viability of small producers and vendors, the project will address: Food production: Examination and development of best management practices and scale appropriate productions systems. Sustaining the economic viability of agriculture is important to improving food security in the United States. Despite our wealth, some households still suffer food insecurity, often those in rural neighborhoods who depend on agriculture for food and income. At the same time, interest in locally and regionally grown food is increasing, and encouraging growth of local and regional food producers and processors will help revitalize rural economics. Regulation and inspection of food products are inconsistent, so small farmers, farmers markets, and small niche operators may not have adopted necessary
food safety and security measures adopted by larger operators. We will identify gaps in food safety and security knowledge among local and regional animal producers in the Southeast. Significant disparities also exist between consumer perceptions of local and regional foods and the ""reality."" Consumers are believed to perceive such foods as safer and of better quality, yet recent recalls of raw organic milk, organic eggs and poultry from small producers show they are not always meeting consumer expectations. We will address food safety gaps among local and regional producers to justify consumer confidence and ensure producers' economic viability. Team members will assess current practices relating to food safety among local food producers and processors; identify best practices; collect data; and educate local and regional stakeholders.
<p>APPROACH:
<br/>A needs assessment will determine the range of current production, processing and marketing practices of animal products (cattle and small ruminants) among small farmers in the region who sell their products locally or regionally. Data will be obtained via surveys, case-studies and face-to-face interviews. On farm sampling will take place on two farms of three different sizes (small, medium and large). Since cattle farms are most common in Alabama, the research will focus on cattle farms; however, the same farming practices will be common across all species. To better evaluate E. coli contamination and cross-contamination risks on different size farms, fecal, feed, water, bedding, pen environment swab, and hide samples from two farms at different locations will be collected every two weeks for two years. To monitor contamination routes of fecal coliform
bacteria in farm/ranch source water, runoff, irrigation water, water in food processing, etc., three replicate samples to measure E. coli and other coliform bacteria concentrations will be collected twice per year from each of the study locations using the Coliscan Easygel water monitoring technique. The comparability and validity of the Coliscan Easygel method will be compared to the 3-M Petri Film method and Standard Methods for monitoring food and water in a food safety context. Two grocery stores will be utilized for the in-store survey locations. Ten packages of steaks and 10 packages of ground beef will be purchased and sampled from each supply channel (small, medium and large producers) during each of the four seasons (three separate trails each season will be conducted). Samples will be collected on the day they are shipped from the processing plants, the day they arrive at the
retail stores, the day they are displayed on shelves and the day of expiration. The total counts of coliform and E. coli will be determined. Collected data will be analyzed to determine best practices, needs, and what steps to take to improve production and distribution of farm products. When data analysis is completed, workshops will be organized for participating producers and interested parties such as consumers and Extension agents to discuss results. Participants will be able to voice and share their concerns and/or best practices with each other. These will be recorded to continue the evaluation process. Partial budgeting techniques will be used to assess the effect of implementing a recommended best practice. Undergraduate curricula for current university students and extension programming for nontraditional learners will be developed. In addition to the formative evaluations
conducted during the development of the training courses, summative evaluations will be administered to participants after each workshop to assess instructional procedures, applicability of the content to the workplace and workshop format. Using the information and curricula assembled for the teaching and training modules, a webbased information portal will be developed to serve as a resource for participants in teaching and training modules as well as for others in the Southeast who did not participate in the training.
<p>PROGRESS:
<br/>2012/12 TO 2013/12
<br/>Target Audience: The current phase of this project reached the farmers who are raising freezer beef in the state of Alabama and neighboring counties in Georgia and Florida.
<br/>Changes/Problems: One reseracher has moved to a different institution, so an additional subcontract will be in place this year. There are no significant changes to the project protocol, the two microbiologist just divided the sample load in half instead of sharing the sample load here are Auburn. With the lag time in funding availabilty within the university system, it has put us behind schedule, but we will overcome that within the year 2 time period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project has provided the researchers with contacts throughout the southeast who are building their operations to function
underscientifically based principles. The networking and interaction with those who are out in the southeast providing meat for our consumption has been invaluable to building the base for this reserach project to be successful. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, we will continue to collect data from farms and from harvesting facilities. The post doctoral student who will be writing and conducting face to face and phone surveys has been hired and has begun the portion of that work that will be crucial in getting the necessary information to begin creating training modules. We will continue on our five year plan and try to accomplish more during the coming reporting period now that our monieas are all in place within the
university system.</p>