The University of Maryland’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI) provided a series of special on-farm food safety and recall readiness trainings for farmers in January 2018. These trainings are supported by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), a program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A series of webinars are scheduled for February for those who were unable to attend the trainings in person. For more information or to register, visit https://foodsafetywebinars.eventbrite.com/
What makes these trainings, and corresponding webinars unique, is they are customized for Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) operators, on-farm markets, and agritourism operations.
ALEI Senior Legal Specialist Sarah Everhart planned these events in response to questions raised by producers at other food safety events about how general information applied to their specific operations. “Our hope is that producers will learn how to prevent, plan for, and respond to a food safety emergency,” said Everhart.
Jim Reinhardt, owner of Nature’s Garlic Farm attended the training for CSA operators on January 10. Reinhardt sells his garlic to large retailers in addition to operating a CSA. “This type of information is extremely important to help ensure food safety not only on the farm but in the distribution network as fresh produce moves from the farm to the retailer to the consumers,” Reinhardt said.
Following the final webinar on February 20, all materials for these trainings will be available on the ALEI website.
The University of Maryland Extension programs are open to any person and will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, political affiliation, and gender identity or expression.
