The Food Safety Dish – Details, episodes & analysis

On this exciting season 2 finale, we explore the world of cooperatives and the co-operative advantage with the longstanding and pioneering Ashland Food Co-op in Ashland, Oregon. With produce manager Joe Reyes and cooperative expert Annie Hoy, we talk AFC's origin story and evolution, how they developed into the northwest's first Certified Organic Retailer, the many parallels between food safety and certified organic standards, and so much more!

Seven Cooperative Principles

Ashland Food Coop

Co-Op Development Resources:

Northwest Cooperative Development Center

California Co-op Development Center

National Co-op Business Association/CLUSA

Food Co-Op Initiative

University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives

With the recent 2024 final rollout of FSMA's Produce Safety Rule on Pre-Harvest Agricultural Water (Subpart E), there's been a lot of chatter and some confusion about what growers need to do to comply. We got the dish from Michigan State University extension educator and on-farm food safety statewide coordinator Phil Tocco. Hear what Phil has to say about water hazards, risks, and assessing your own ag water as he distills technical regulatory language into an accessible pool of knowledge that empowers growers.

Risk Prioritization Tool for Agricultural Water

In an exciting bonus episode, we share a roundtable discussion with some of our esteemed season one guests on the topic "Creating Cultures of Food Safety." Anita Adalja, Lorig Hawkins, and Nathan Stacey all sat down with us to share their visions for good food safety farm cultures, and leave us with some maps on how we might arrive there.

Check out our guests' websites:

Not Our Farm

Middle Ground Farm

Tilth Alliance

Do you have a great idea for an episode, or a topic you want to learn more about? Email us at kkavanagh@nfudc.org to share your thoughts!

Anita Adalja, founder of Not Our Farm, sat down with the food safety team to discuss how community care and considerations for farmworkers--the heart of farm operations--lead to healthy work environments, healthy food, happy people, and beyond!

Resources

Not Our Farm Website

Not Our Farm Zine: A Guide to Working on Farms

Fair Share CSA Coalition

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The food safety team sat down with Donna Clements, Produce Safety Alliance Coordinator and Northeast Regional Extension Associate. We discuss what sanitizers are, how to choose and use them wisely, and about plenty of tools and resources to guide you in your practice.

Resources

• Produce Safety Alliance: https://cals.cornell.edu/produce-safety-alliance
• Introduction to Selecting an EPA-Labeled Sanitizer: https://resources.producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/documents/Sanitizer-Factsheet.pdf
• UVM Sanitizer Dose Calculator: https://ageng.w3.uvm.edu/sanitizer/index.html
• UVM Safely Dispensing Sanitizers: https://blog.uvm.edu/cwcallah/2020/12/15/safely-dispensing-sanitizers/
• National GAPs program Decision Tree on Postharvest Water Use (includes SOP template): https://cals.cornell.edu/national-good-agricultural-practices-program/resources/educational-materials/decision-trees/postharvest-water
• Food Safety Considerations for Postharvest Washing of Produce and Sanitation of Packing Areas: https://www.foodsafetyclearinghouse.org/sites/default/files/files/fs353e.pdf
• PSA Sanitizer tool (opens as an Excel sheet): https://resources.producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/documents/PSA-Labeled-Sanitizers-for-Produce.xlsx

Compost... one of the great wonders of the world! We got the dish from Seattleites Nathan Stacey, Farm Programs Director at Tilth Alliance and Liv Johansson, Compost Facility Operator at the Woodland Park Zoo & Vice President of the Washington Organics Recycling Council (WORC.) We talked soil science, the basics of compost, the coveted "Zoo Doo" compost program at Woodland Park Zoo, and how compost's myriad of uses bring bounty and stability to not only farms, but also help the earth as we know it spin round!

Resources:

Washington State University Compost Mix Calculator

Tilth Alliance Resources

WORC Resources

Soils for Salmon

Have you pondered ponics systems? Sean Fogarty is a Research Specialist at the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety focused on-farm produce safety in the Northeast, and hydroponic and aquaponic food safety nationwide. We talked all about aquaponics & hydroponics, risks to consider, and how interested growers can venture into ponics operations of their own.

Some post-show notes from Sean:

• When recirculating a nutrient solution, water treatment of some form will be required to maintain optimal water quality (chemically, physically, and biologically). At the most basic this includes physical filtration to remove particulates from the recirculating flow.

• Accumulation of organic matter (OM) in the nutrient solution is something to avoid, whereas in soil-based farming you want to increase OM. There are a few ways to measure the OM accumulation, the simplest of which is turbidity. People also use ORP (oxygen reduction potential) as an indicator of nutrient solution quality.

• Even for exempt farms and produce, it is a good idea to prevent contact between the recirculating water and the edible portions of the produce. This reduces the chance of a single contamination event spreading to the rest of the system.

Resources:

• Factsheets - Produce Safety in Hydroponic and Aquaponic Operations https://go.uvm.edu/ponics

  • Cleaning and Sanitizing

  • Fish Health and Handling

  • Harvest and Postharvest Handling

  • Personal Health and Hygiene

  • Wildlife and Domesticated Animals

• Hydroponic Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Course - Ohio State University ($150 fee)

  • Qualifies as “GAPs training” for USDA GAP/GHP Audit or as “Worker Education and Training” for GAPs Harmonized Food Safety Standard USDA Checklist and Harmonized GAP+ Audit

• CEA Food Safety Coalition

  • Industry group that developed supplemental guidance for CEA operations undergoing or preparing for Global Food Safety Initiative or equivalent audits

  • CEA Food Safety Certified label and certification information

Fellow local food safety collaborators, Kentucky Horticulture Council's Dakota Moore and Dani D'Antonio, dive in to the world of water testing--various sources, how to test your water, and best practices to ensure your water is continually safe with minimal risk.

Kentucky Horticulture Council Resources:

Ag Water Sampling & Testing Resources: https://kyhortcouncil.org/ag-water-sampling-testing/

Ag Water Testing How-To Videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVyJ0VH6aG-zE3Nq6HOCC0b-XuMFMFo7Q

NECAFS Water Testing: https://go.uvm.edu/waterlabmap

University of Vermont Extension Associate Professor of Agricultural Engineering and Director of the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety (NECAFS) Chris Callahan clarifies common questions and misconceptions around cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting, and shares some simple methods to incorporate hygienic design practices into your operation to streamline your food safety management.

LINKS:

• UVM Ag Engineering Site. http://go.uvm.edu/ageng

• SCRUB Project Page. http://go.uvm.edu/scrub

• A Guide to Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Disinfecting. http://go.uvm.edu/clean-sanitize-disinfect

• Cleaning Tools & Supplies for Produce Farms. https://go.uvm.edu/cleaningtools

• Cleaning Tools for Produce Farms - Video Series. https://go.uvm.edu/cleaningtoolsvideo

• Detergents for Farm Food Contact Surfaces. https://go.uvm.edu/detergents

• Hygienic Design for Produce Farms. http://go.uvm.edu/hygienicdesign

Wisconsin Farmers Union members Danielle Endvick, LaDonna Green, and Kriss Marion share their individual farm stories, discuss why storytelling matters more than ever, and how to share yours with audiences hungry for both good food and good stories big or small.