September 2020 - 21

FOOD SAFETY
Study finds food safety practices benefit small farmers
By Krishna Ramanujan
Cornell University
The costs of implementing food safety
practices to prevent foodborne illnesses
have been viewed as a threat to the
financial well-being of fruit and vegetable
producers - particularly small farms,
which must pay a higher percentage of
their annual sales than larger farms to meet
safety standards.
But a new Cornell study finds that when
small-scale farmers are trained in food safety
protocols and develop a farm food safety
plan, new markets open up to them, leading
to an overall gain in revenue.
" Our results should be welcomed
by growers in understanding that food
safety investments can support both
reduced microbial risks and sales growth, "
said Todd Schmit, associate professor in
the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied
Economics and Management.
Schmit is lead author of " Assessing
the Costs and Returns of On-farm Food
Safety Improvements: A Survey of Good
Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Training
Participants, " which was published in July in
the journal PLOS ONE.
" The study highlights the value of
food safety to all farmers, " said study
co-author Elizabeth Bihn, director of the
Cornell-based National GAPs Program
and the Produce Safety Alliance, a
collaborative project between Cornell,
the USDA and the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). " It's great to know
that by investing in food safety, you are
actually getting a market benefit. "
In 1998, the FDA released a guide for
good agricultural practices (GAPs), to
minimize microbial food safety hazards
for fresh fruits and vegetables. Though
the recommendations for farmers were
voluntary, many buyers - including grocery
stores and wholesale buyers, farm-to-school
programs and food distributors - demanded
growers follow GAPs guidelines as a
requisite for doing business. For verification,
buyers commonly request that growers get a
third-party audit.
The National GAPs Program and Cornell
Cooperative Extension began offering a
multiday GAPs training program in 2008 to
help growers create a farm food safety plan,
a necessary step to passing an audit.
In the study, food scientists, extension
educators and economists surveyed 80
New York state farms that had previously
participated in the multiday GAPs trainings.
Cornell Cooperative Extension educators
visited farms and conducted in-person
interviews with farmers.
Educators asked the farmers about
costs of implementing GAPs, which can
include washing stations, coolers and new
employees to monitor and record food safety
steps and actions. They also asked about the
financial benefits.
" What we found is that, consistent with
the literature, " Schmit said, " the relative cost
burden is higher for smaller-scale producers,
but they also have more relative benefits of
increasing sales to new markets and buyers. "
Also, when profitability of small and large
farms were compared, the researchers found
the relative benefits from getting GAPs
certified were roughly the same overall.
In 2015, the FDA completed its Food
Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce
Safety Rule, a set of specific actions growers
must take to prevent contamination
from foodborne pathogens. While GAPs
certification is voluntary, market-driven
and requires an audit, FSMA compliance is
mandatory and farms receive inspections.
FSMA compliance has begun on a rolling
basis based on the size of farms, though
small farms with average annual food sales
of $500,000 or less and farms that grow
certain types of produce can qualify for an
exemption and don't require compliance.
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FGN | SEPTEMBER 2020 | 21
Elizabeth Bihn, director of the Produce Safety Alliance, conducts a food safety training.
Photo: Rob Way
This makes continued GAPs training, audits
and certification necessary for smaller
producers.
" It is important to note that markets drove
food safety requirements before FSMA, "
Bihn said, " and will likely continue to drive
markets given that FSMA exempts or
excludes certain farms. "
In the future the researchers hope to do
similar types of surveys and analyses in
other parts of the country, specific to the
FSMA implementation.
Co-authors include Gretchen Wall,
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September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2020