February 9, 2021
Hello Produce Safety Alliance Listserv Members:
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We have hit the ground running in 2021 with presentations at grower, industry, and training team meetings, planning and delivering PSA Train-the-Trainer Courses, and working on new PSA resources in English and Spanish. This newsletter contains some of the highlights, including the job posting for our Midwest Regional Extension Associate position!
Take care and be well,
The PSA Team
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News Briefs from the PSA Team |
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Don Stoeckel, Leaving the Produce Safety Alliance This Month |
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The new year has been busy for Don Stoeckel, Midwest Regional Extension Associate, with statewide meetings, assistance at Remote Delivery Grower Training courses, and courses hosted by PSA. Starting in March, you will find Don in California as a Senior Environmental Specialist in water microbiology for the California Department of Food and Agriculture Produce Safety Program. February will be spent participating in the North Central Region meeting and wrapping up projects.
On a personal and professional level, Don wishes to convey what a tremendous experience it has been with the Produce Safety Alliance Team for the past 5 1/2 years, working with collaborators in the Midwest and beyond, and asks that you please stay in touch.
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Donna Clements, PSA Southwest Regional Extension Associate, presented at the United States Composting Council’s annual conference, held January 26-27, 2021. Working with collaborators at the US Food and Drug Association and the National Farmers Union Local Food Safety Collaborative, the session included an overview of FSMA Produce Safety Rule Subpart F (requirements for biological soil amendments of animal origin), a discussion of how the industry may help produce growers meet recordkeeping requirements, and available resources. The session was well-attended, with presentations followed by a lively question and answer session.
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Connie Fisk, PSA Northwest Regional Extension Associate, presented at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Winter Fruit & Vegetable Conference February 9, 2020 on the topic of Food Safety Best Practices for Pick-Your-Own Fruit Farms. She stressed the requirements in § 112.33 of the Produce Safety Rule for covered farms, a) Make visitors aware of the farm’s food safety policies and b) Provide access to toilet and handwashing facilities, and then focused on rules to consider including in a visitor policy. She also directed attendees to visitor policy ideas related to COVID-19 safety including the Cornell Small Farms Program’s Best Management Practices for Agritourism Farms During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Institute for Food Safety at Cornell University’s list of Produce-related COVID-19 Resources.
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Betsy Bihn, PSA Director, presented “Types of Cleaning: Wet and Dry” as part of the pilot Cleaning and Sanitizing Regional Workshop held on February 2, 2021 hosted by National Farmers Union, Western Regional Center, FDA, United Fresh, and Produce Marketing Association. In this presentation, she stressed the importance of communication in developing a sanitation program, operation attributes that impact the type of cleaning method to use, and why a little bit of wet cleaning is not always the best idea.
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PSA Midwest Regional Extension Associate
We are currently accepting applications for a PSA Midwest Regional Extension Associate. As a key member of the PSA team, the Midwest (MW) Regional Extension Associate (REA) will be responsible for planning, organizing, instructing, and evaluating PSA training programs for produce growers, extension educators, and regulatory personnel in their region. The MW REA will facilitate and provide leadership for in-person meetings as applicable, conference calls and webinars, and be directly involved in training other individuals to use the developed curriculum; provide continual feedback to PSA leadership through preparation of regional impact reports, training evaluations, and outreach activities; and participate in weekly PSA team calls. The MW REA must be willing to travel regionally and nationally a significant amount of time (~50%) pending COVID-19 control, including non-traditional and weekend work hours. This position will be located in the Midwest U.S. with exact location being flexible within the 12-state region. Please visit the position description for additional details and link to apply by March 1.
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Trainer Resources for Your Upcoming PSA Grower Training Courses
Just a reminder in case you haven’t visited lately, the PSA Trainer Resources webpage (Recursos para instructors) contains material that trainers can study before presenting their assigned module(s) as well as a variety of supplemental slide sets and optional activities that can be used to engage face-to-face or remote audiences. There are also resources at the top of the page to help with course set up and advertising. Our General Resources webpage (Recursos generales) also contains a wealth of information. Check it out!
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A Different Paper Stock for the PSA Grower Training Manual
You may notice a new look and feel to the English Grower Training Manual on your next order delivery from the Produce Safety Alliance. We changed the paper on the pages between the tabs to a non-glossy stock. Evaluation data letting us know the glossy pages were hard to take notes on prompted the change. We listened and now the pages are non-glossy! When we reprint the Spanish Grower Training manual, we will update the paper stock there as well.
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PSA Train-the-Trainer Courses |
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The February 1-4, 2021 pilot remote PSA Train-the-Trainer Course was a success! We have 15 new trainers from DE, FL, MA, MI, MS, MT, OR, SC, WA, and WV.
Registration will open later this week for the March 15-18, April 26-29, and June 7-10, 2021 PSA Train-the-Trainer Courses. Sign up on our Upcoming Train-the-Trainer Courses webpage to receive an email notification when registration opens.
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Small Farms and GAP Audits Webinar |
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The National Farmers Union (NFU) has a webinar for produce safety educators scheduled for Monday Feb 22, 2021 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm EST titled “Stories from the field: Small Farms and GAP Audits”.
Webinar Description: We know that passing a Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) audit may seem like an impossible goal for a small-scale farmer and a difficult topic for produce safety educators to teach. Two farmers, Roberto Meza from Emerald Gardens in Colorado and Nathan Vannette from Growing Green Family Farms in South Carolina, along with Kim Butz, a former GAP-certified farmer and current produce safety educator with the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, will share a few stories about their experiences being audited, lessons learned, and how produce safety practices improved their farms. For educators teaching GAPs, this will be a great opportunity to hear some success stories and challenges and to ask lots of questions – about half of the webinar will be dedicated to audience Q&A.
If you have questions, comments, or ideas for future NFU webinars, please contact Billy Mitchell at bmitchell@nfudc.org.
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USDA NIFA Accepting Food Safety Outreach Program (FSOP) Proposals
Awardees will develop and implement food safety training, education, extension, outreach and technical assistance projects that address the needs of owners and operators of small to mid-sized farms, beginning farmers, socially-disadvantaged farmers, small processors, or small fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers. Grant applications will be solicited directly from those in local communities to include those from community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, food hubs, farm cooperatives, extension, and other local groups. Visit the USDA NIFA FSOP page for details and to apply by the April 1, 2021 deadline.
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