Research Phase

Developing Risk-assessment, Educational, and Communication Tools to Lower Food Safety Barriers for Organic Specialty Crop Growers

A collaboration with The Organic Center, the University of California-Davis, and the University of Georgia. Supported by a grant from the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Award Number: 2023-51300-40950).

Organic growers can face unique challenges in trying to meet both National Organic Program standards and food safety requirements. According to the NASS 2019 Organic Survey, regulatory problems were the greatest production challenge for growers, and our 2022 national needs assessment study, described below, identified food safety as a policy and marketing constraint on the expansion of organic specialty crop agriculture. Specifically, complying with food safety requirements poses both operational and administrative barriers for organic growers. Operational barriers impact farm production decisions and practices. Administrative barriers impact a farm’s policy compliance and market access. Both barriers can hinder organic growers seeking to grow their operations as well as growers considering making the transition to organic certification, and we propose concrete approaches to lower these barriers. First, by developing a practical, user-friendly risk-assessment and decision-making tool for organic soil amendments. Second, by developing, demonstrating, and evaluating a suite of extension and outreach materials aimed at bringing all organic produce stakeholders–including organic growers, farm advisors, and organic and food safety auditors and certifiers, and buyers–to a common understanding of the unique food safety risks and farm management strategies specific to organic agriculture of fruit and vegetable crops covered by the Produce Safety Rule. Our long-term goal is to reduce both the operational and administrative barriers to compliance with multiple regulations by equipping organic growers and industry stakeholders with evidence-based tools and training to comply simultaneously with organic agriculture and food safety best practices and requirements.

Planning Phase

Addressing Incongruities between Food Safety Management and National Organic Program Standards

A collaboration with The Organic Center. Supported by a grant from the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Award Number: 2021-51300-34893).

Food producers follow important safety rules that protect consumers from illness, yet many organic farmers face insurmountable financial barriers and obstacles in meeting food safety requirements and the USDA National Organic Program standards.

These regulatory requirements often contradict other crucial organic farming principles, and because of this, compliance with food safety regulations is one of the greatest challenges facing organic farming today, creating hardships for farmers to maintain their organic certification. According to a USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service 2019 Organic Survey, regulatory problems were identified as the most significant challenge for farmers.  

The goal of this project is to reduce the burden of compliance with multiple regulations by equipping organic farmers and industry stakeholders with cost-effective and organic-compliant solutions for wildlife intrusion, microbial field testing and sanitizers, and practical policies that empower growers to comply with important food safety best practices and retain their organic certification.

Results from the initial needs assessment survey were publicly shared in this 2022 webinar, “Tools Organic Farmers Need to Meet Food Safety Requirements: Learnings from a National Needs Assessment,” organized by The Organic Center: