PLANTING THE SEEDS: TEACHING THE VALUE OF FOOD SAFETY TO NEW AND BEGINNING FARMERS

Planting the Seeds: Teaching the Value of Food Safety to New and Beginning Farmerswill empower growers on small and medium farms to achieve early success in food safety. This will be achieved by incorporating farm food safety risk prevention values into their farm business plan framework from the beginning. Produce growers who are not yet covered by the Food Safety Modernization Act: Produce Safety Rule (FSMA PSR) and those that are qualified exempt will be provided with tools to develop food safety systems preparing them for compliance with the FSMA PSR. The use of these tools will foster the development of good habits associated with food safety culture at the start- positioning them for regulatory compliance when needed. Through this project we will conduct both online and in-person educational programming in whichparticipants will:1. Complete a one-day beginning farmer focused food safety risk reduction program.2. Attend a one-day hands-on food safety plan writing workshop with 1 month and 3 month follow ups to answer questions and check in on progress.3. Participate in Food Safety 1-hour hot topic webinars.4. Learn best practices for training employees.5. Requesta one-on-one on-farm produce safety risk walkthrough with follow-up technical assistance as needed.