Marketing Food Safety: Expanding Capacity to Support Local Food System Development in Rural Northern California

<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> Local and regional food economies represent a significant portion of the US food system and an important economic development opportunity for rural communities, but their growth can be limited by disconnects between the food safety training and certification of growers and the requirements of foodbuyers.While direct-to-consumer marketing remains an important component of local food economy, continued growth is being driven by increases in sales between small- and medium-sized growers and intermediary food buyers such as school districts, hospitals, distributors, and restaurants. To reduce liability and manage risk, intermediated food market buyers often require growers to meet more stringent food safety standards than those required by new and existing food safety regulation, such as the Food Safety Modernization Act. This may limit local food
market activity by adding an additional (contracting) cost for producers seeking to source locally, and by excluding growers who cannot meet the increased standards for financial or other reasons. This project uses grower surveys and buyer interviews to assess how the on-farm food safety activities of small- and medium-sized growers differs from requirements set by regional intermediary food buyers in rural Northern California, and to identify how those differences might limit the growth of the local food economy. A series of trainings, workshops, and forums based on survey and interview findings will be delivered to regional growers, buyers, and economic development professionals to facilitate solutions to food safety barriers by addressing knowledge gaps and connecting growers and buyers with up-to-date food safety information and resources. The project goals are to generate new
fundamental knowledge about food safety barriers to local food system development, to conduct outreach that will increase small- and medium-sized grower understanding of food safety-related market barriers, and to increase the capacity of CSU, Chico to support food safety education and research by strengthening community partnerships and increasing subject knowledge and multidisciplinary collaboration among the faculty and students.<p>
APPROACH: <br/>The project will be administered by Dr. Brimlow in the CSUC COA with support from Co-PI's in the COA and CSUC Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences. The project will involve a key collaboration with the CSUC Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion (CNAP) and a partnership with the Northern California Regional Land Trust (land trust). The project proposes to conduct a needs assessment to determine the gap between: Local grower food safety knowledge/activity, as identified by: previous research conducted by Ms. Ferdon at the Northern California Regional Land Trust and Dr. Brimlow at the CSU, Chico College of Agriculture a separately funded and ongoing survey instrument designed to elicit local grower food safety knowledge/activity follow-up focus groups/trainings conducted under this NIFA grant to further explore grower knowledge/activities as
revealed in the survey and the standards/requirements of local medium- to large-scale food buyers such as institutions (e.g., schools and hospitals), distributors, and restaurants, as identified by: an interview tool developed and administered under this NIFA project to elicit information about current food safety standards enforced by each buyer, their expectation of future food safety certification requirements, and their interest in potential group food safety certification options. Project personnel will: compile/develop a list of buyers from various buyer groups (restaurants, schools, hospitals, distributors) using the Buy Fresh Buy Local, North Valley network and other contacts develop an interview tool that will be administered to the individual buyers by project personnel (graduate students) administer the tool to local buyers via telephone and site visits compile the results of
the interviews for comparison with local grower information The methodology for conducting the needs assessment reflects differences between buyer and grower characteristics. While the grower survey will enable the project team to obtain quantitative information about buyer opinions and behaviors, small numbers and heterogeneity makes obtaining the same quantitative statistics for local buyers difficult, so the results of the needs assessment will primarily be qualitative in nature. The project team will accomplish the outreach objectives by coordinating workshops for local growers and buyers to educate them about the findings of the needs assessment and provide strategies to help them overcome food safety barriers to local food sales. A forum will be held to educate regional economic development professionals about food safety barriers to local food economy to enable them to provide
better support and services to small and medium-sized growers. The project team will also facilitate trainings for growers and buyers that will increase market opportunities and access to food safety resources by connecting them to a regional online food hub. The online food hub is designed to help facilitate local food sales and will give buyers and growers access to food safety information and resources through a food safety ""portal"" designed and implemented by this proposed project. Participation in the Buy Fresh Buy Local, North Valley grower/buyer network will be increased 75% through recruitment via phone and at workshops/trainings, and the network will be strengthened using networking events that will generate opportunities to share resources and build new business relationships. Project funds will be used to support a minimum of two (2) graduate students in Nutrition and Food
Science. Both students will be required to provide concept papers to the project staff detailing how their work will advance them toward their degree by leading to a thesis and peer-reviewed publication. The graduate students will be included in regular grant team meetings with faculty and other project personnel, and Dr. Brimlow will meet with each student individually on a regular basis. Dr. Brimlow will also serve on each student's thesis committee. The project will use the following efforts to impact the target audiences: Workshops and trainings for local buyers, growers, and economic development professionals Curriculum enhancement for courses taught by faculty in the CSUC COA and DNFS and delivered to students in each college Enhanced formal classroom instruction for CSUC students provided by impacted faculty in the COA and DNFS Undergraduate and graduate student mentoring by
project faculty Dissemination activities to broader academic and community audience, including academic publications, conference presentations, and reports to community organizations. Monitoring and evaluation Quarterly monitoring and evaluation of the research and outreach outcomes will be implemented by the project team and will be reported to the PD. Project progress will also be monitored using the activities timeline reported in the original proposal. Research outcome #3, ""Increased food safety content knowledge for CSUC faculty and students about food safety-related local food system barriers and the potential benefits of group certification,"" will be assessed using pre- and post-project surveys adapted from the team's previous research. Research outcome #4, "New multidisciplinary collaboration among CSUC faculty and students," will be assessed using a retrospective
post-project survey. The remaining research outcomes, including new scientific knowledge and faculty-student collaboration will be monitored and assessed using the following research outputs: 20 participating students Four participating faculty Two conference poster presentations One conference oral presentation Two peer-reviewed journal articles Two publications besides peer-reviewed journal articles Outreach outcomes will be monitored and assessed using pre- and post-training surveys and outreach outputs. Outcomes #5, "Increased knowledge for buyers and small- to medium-sized growers about the costs and benefits of group food safety certification," #6, "Increased access to food safety resources for small- to medium-sized growers," and #8, "Increased knowledge for economic development professionals about food safety-related local food system barriers and the potential benefits of group
certification" will be measured by conducting pre/post surveys at outreach trainings and workshops. Findings generated from focus groups, as well as the previous literature, will be used to develop the surveys. Content validity of the surveys will be assessed by a team consisting of food safety, local food systems and marketing experts. The surveys will be pilot-tested before full operations. Outreach outcomes will also be monitored and assessed using the following specific outreach outputs: 25 buyers reached through trainings on food safety certification & how to use the online food hub 150 growers reached through trainings on food safety certification & using the online food hub 50 buyers & growers reached through trainings on small/rural business development 10 rural development professionals reached through trainings Increase BFBLNV member network by 75% (75 new members)
100 growers/buyers participating in facilitated networking events 15,000 copies of the 3rd edition of the Local Food Guide An enhanced online food hub website.</p>