August 2019 - 16

duets
BY PETER KONJOIAN AND BETH SCHECKELHOFF
Adding Edible Crops to an Ornamentals Operation:
Food Safety is a Different Ball Game
responsibilities, but the added layer of
food safety management is new to many
of them. How are you seeing this shift
toward edible crops unfolding?
Beth: Certainly, there has been great
Peter Konjoian is president of Konjoian's Horticulture
Education Services Inc. His career spans four decades as
a commercial grower, researcher and consultant. Beth
Scheckelhoff is Extension educator at Ohio State University.
T
oday's guest is Beth
Scheckelhoff, Extension
educator at the Ohio State
University in Ottawa, Ohio. Beth
received her undergraduate degree at
the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville,
in 1997. After graduating, she interned
at Green Circle Growers in Oberlin,
Ohio, before pursuing graduate school
at Michigan State University with
Royal Heins and Arthur Cameron. Beth
graduated in 2005 with her master's
and doctorate degrees in floriculture
production and took her current
position at Ohio State. She continues
to work with agronomic, ornamental
and specialty crop producers across
Ohio as an Extension educator.
Peter: Thank you for joining me for
this important topic, Beth. Today's
discussion will focus on food safety
from the perspective of traditional
ornamental crop growers who are
considering or have already shifted part
of their ranges to edible crops.
Regardless of the crop category,
ornamental or edible, crop production
is crop production. After all, a geranium
doesn't know that it's not going
to be eaten and a tomato doesn't
know that it is. Growers seem to be
fine with tweaking their crop culture
16 AUGUST 2019 GPNMAG.COM
interest from ornamental growers across
the country to explore edibles and the
opportunities they present. In Ohio, like
most other areas, communities have
expressed a desire to know how and
where their food is being produced -
and who is growing it! Many greenhouse
operations have been able to capitalize
on this consumer shift by meeting
demand for year-round locally grown
produce, especially with leafy greens,
tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and some
other specialty items.
Interestingly, many greenhouse
businesses that now grow ornamental
plants actually began growing
vegetable plants. They produced either
transplants for field production of " truck
crops " such as celery, cabbage, carrots,
tomatoes, etc. that were then trucked to
local or distant markets or for growing
finished product in the greenhouse for
consumption. In many ways, some of
these businesses have come full circle
with renewed interested in growing
edible crops once again.
Peter: Beth, that comment allows
me and many fellow growers of
my generation to flash back to our
childhoods. I grew up on precisely the
family truck farm you describe with
vivid, wonderful memories from grade
school of accompanying my father in
the farm pickup truck into Boston to
deliver our produce to the wholesale
market. Today's bustling Faneuil
Hall Marketplace, a popular tourist
destination and city meeting place,
served as that wholesale market up to
1970. Whenever I'm in the area and
pass by what used to be the stall we'd
unload at ... I'm 10 years old sitting
next to my dad in the truck.
Back then, my experience with food
safety meant dumping the morning's
cucumber harvest into a large tub of
water to remove field soil before hand
packing into wooden bushels. Our
tomatoes were run through a machine
with rolling brushes to remove debris
and polish off pesticide residues.
Recalling these practices makes me
shudder at our naiveté.
You hit the nail on the head as well
about family truck farms shifting to
flowers and bedding plants during the
60s and 70s to generate more profit.
Our current interest in switching back
to edible crops, for the same reason,
is indeed a closing of the circle for
growers and the reason my research
re-focus carries the title " from flowers
to food. "
Beth: You are absolutely correct. The
general principles of growing plants
apply to vegetables and ornamentals,
though the systems can be widely
different. Technology and automation
have been instrumental in developing
many year-round production systems
for vegetables in greenhouses and
enclosed spaces. Think LED lights and
hydroponic NFT systems.
Peter: Explain how growers should
focus on food safety concerns in the
production (greenhouse) environment
compared to the post production
(storing, packing, shipping) environment.
Same principles, different practices?
Beth: Growing edible crops does
force growers to think a bit differently
about their product. When growing
ornamentals, we have to focus on
cleanliness and sanitation from a plant
pathogen standpoint - we don't want
to spread germs that might get other
plants sick. With edibles, we certainly
want to be aware of plant pathogens
but we also have to be aware of
pathogens that can cause human
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August 2019

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