Strengthening Produce Safety Rule Understanding and Compliance through Real-Life Applications for Local Food Growers in Virginia.

Local Food Hub (LFH) will increase knowledge about and implementation of Produce Safety Rule (PSR) best practices and recordkeeping by breaking down information into bite-sized and actionable steps that empower farms to improve their food safety compliance. It will provide tools to help implement these steps, and conduct data collection, evaluation, and dissemination of the results.The goal for this project, as with all of Local Food Hub's work, is to increase competitiveness and opportunity for small to midsize growers and ensure that they adhere to the highest level of food safety and compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the Produce Safety Rule (PSR).Local Food Hub will introduce its unique PSR recordkeeping app and incorporate a range of educational materials, both online and hands-on, to reinforce the value of best practices and methods of on-farm implementation. Educational materials will include a series of videos of Virginia growers sharing their on-farm food safety practices, with topics to include wildlife management, cleaning and sanitizing, employee training, post harvest handling and an in-depth overview of qualified exemption.Local Food Hub will develop portable demonstrations of farm innovations, adapted from FSOP 2019-70020-30349, with the support of Alabama Extension and the National Farmers Union. These portable demonstrations will cover diverse topics that are critical to farm success, such as CoolBot use, proper on farm cleaning and sanitation techniques, proper mixing of sanitizer, and a vegetative buffer demonstration. Having these hands-on learning tools and real-life examples available will enable Local Food Hub to meaningfully connect with growers and help them learn the needed techniques to have successful farms and comply with PSR.Finally, given the recent announcement by the FDA about agricultural water requirements, Local Food Hub will communicate with its farm partners about the new regulations and work to provide education, assessments and tools to help growers comply. This will likely include an agricultural water assessment, with a goal of incorporating the assessments into the app (especially crucial to covered farms that are not GAP certified).The target population for this program is small to midsize Local Food Growers (LFG). LFG are defined as food producers who sell over 50% of their food within 275 miles of their farm or food facility. Local Food Hub works specifically with small to midsize LFG, as they have strong potential to shape the local and regional food system but need support to access wholesale markets that are often occupied by large national and international players. Many of Local Food Hub's partner farms, while identified by their status as small to midsize LFG, also meet criteria for other priority populations -- including beginning farmers, minority or women-owned farms, and plain clothes growers. Local Food Hub has greatly increased outreach to minority farmers, with a new staff member dedicated to serving them exclusively.