Ohio Produce vs. Salmondlla & E. Coli.

• Goal is to reach most of the state’s over 1,000 fruit and vegetable farmers, plus gardeners who sell produce at roadside or farmers’ markets.

WOOSTER, Ohio — The way to a safer food supply begins on the farm. Or the backyard garden. That’s the conviction of Ohio State University food safety experts, who have partnered with Ohio food-industry organizations and produce growers large and small to provide customized training on ways to prevent contamination of fresh fruits and vegetables before they reach consumers.  Recent outbreaks of E. coli O157 and Salmonella in fresh produce, coupled with heightened media coverage of such events, have thrust fruit and vegetable safety into the forefront of public attention. And despite the fact that no major foodborne-pathogen outbreak in produce has originated in Ohio, Buckeye state growers have been affected by a decline in consumption of fresh veggies and are faced with unprecedented scrutiny and a greater need to implement on-farm assurance systems.

While large-scale producers have more available resources and information to implement such assurance systems and comply with industry standards known as good agricultural practices (GAPs), small farmers and gardeners may be at a higher risk for producing contaminated fruits and vegetables because of limited resources, cultural and demographic factors, and lack of access to science-based recommendations.

“One thing we found after bringing Ohio produce growers and others involved in our food system to the table is that many small farmers are difficult to reach by standard outreach materials and activities because of cultural barriers and long-held traditions and beliefs,” said Doug Doohan, an associate professor in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) and OSU Extension.

“The farmers who are not following GAPs have an enormous potential to impact the safety of the food supply as their product becomes blended with that of other farmers,” Doohan pointed out. “So we were faced with the need to figure a better way to reach out to them and train them in currently available control measures and practices, using learning strategies that would increase adoption of such practices.”

One effort to bridge this gap is a two-year (2007-2009) project led by Doohan in collaboration with OARDC and OSU Extension colleagues and several industry partners, including the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, the Mid American Ag and Hort Services (MAAHS), and the Toledo-based Center for Innovative Food Technology (CIFT).

Funded by a $60,000 Excellence in Engagement Grant from Ohio State with matching funds from OARDC and industry partners, the project — “Engaging Fruit and Vegetable Growers in Enhanced Food Safety Practices though Audience Tailored Risk Communication” — aims to reach a large majority of the more than 1,000 produce farmers estimated to operate in the state through hands-on programs delivered by OSU Extension educators. Additionally, by training Master Gardener volunteers on food safety program delivery, the project also seeks to educate gardeners who sell produce at roadside or farmers’ markets.

Andy Kleinschmidt, an agriculture and natural resources educator with the Van Wert County office of OSU Extension, is one of the food safety trainers who have been reaching out to farmers throughout Ohio.

“I was motivated to get involved in this program because it addresses a very timely issue of relevance to Ohio,” Kleinschmidt said. “Food safety has received a considerable amount of attention, and there is a direct need for educating our grower clientele about food safety. I remember an Ohio spinach grower telling me that his online sales jumped through the roof following the 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach. I want to make sure that this grower has all the training necessary to fully mitigate risks of E. coli on his farm.”

The effort has had great buy-in among produce growers, who see food safety as one of the most important issues facing their industry. One of them is Fred Finney, owner of Moreland Fruit Farm south of Wooster, who has been involved in the project since the beginning and has provided input regarding training and outreach.

“Safety is crucial because if it (contamination) happens in one area, it turns people off buying produce from that area even if your farm was not involved,” said Finney, an Ohio State alumnus. “As the ‘buy local’ movement becomes more important, what people care about the most is the trust they put in the local growers, knowing that we eat the same products they are buying and that they can trust their safety.”

This project builds upon current Ohio State research by Doohan and Jeff LeJeune, a microbiologist and food safety specialist also with OARDC and OSU Extension, looking into factors that hinder adoption of food safety practices by underserved farmers (such as Amish or African-Americans) in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

Funded by a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this study employs “mental models” — the beliefs, attitudes and perceptions that underlie behaviors and practices associated, in this case, with vegetable handling among growers — in order to better understand how various groups of farmers think about food safety, how they can be more adequately reached, and what strategies will better communicate risk and promote adoption of GAPs (see http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~news/story.php?id=4284 for more information about this study).

“We are trying to get away from traditional educational methodologies that reach and promote change only among some of the members of a group, with the majority lagging behind,” Doohan explained. “The knowledge we have gained through the mental-modeling exercise is helping us determine what the greatest needs of our audiences are, so we can fine-tune existing educational materials that appeal to their perceptions and deliver programs that are appropriate to their actual needs.”

That’s particularly true of Amish growers, who account for a large percentage of fresh produce operations in counties such as Ashland, Holmes and Wayne. In the town of Fredericksburg — on the Wayne-Holmes county line and in the heart of Ohio’s Amish country — Doohan and his team have found an ally in Mr. Yoder (who asked not to be identified by his first name), a community leader representing some 100-120 growers with operations of 20 acres of less.

Amish farmers, Yoder said, grow most of the products sold at the Mt. Hope Farmer’s Produce Auction, which supplies bulk buyers from throughout Ohio, including supermarket chains such as Buehler’s and Heinen’s.

“This kind of outreach is very much needed among our people to raise awareness about practices they can put in place to improve food safety and reduce the risk of contamination,” Yoder said. “Ohio State folks have been at the Mt. Hope auction providing educational programs, handing out fact sheets and using posters. Posters are very helpful.”

According to Yoder, some of the potentially unsafe practices that need to be addressed among the Amish community derive from traditional ways of farming, such as raising livestock or poultry and vegetables on the same plot of land and the handling of manure.

“These are simple things, really,” Yoder said. “Such as making them aware that the produce packing shed needs to be separate from where the animals are housed or that they shouldn’t work on the produce after handling animals, as these practices could carry pathogens into the produce shed. We also need to educate them about the need to compost manure before it’s applied on the fields.”

By the end of this project in 2009, Doohan and his team hope to have completed 35-40 educational sessions offered strategically throughout Ohio, in addition to a food safety workshop presented at the annual meeting of the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketing Association (OPGMA). Farmers will be evaluated to measure how their food safety practices have changed as a result of training.

“Doug Doohan and Jeff LeJeune have been instrumental in providing a grassroots training program to reach the smaller growers within the state,” said Bob Jones, owner of The Chef’s Garden and president of OPGMA. “Their work, along with that of the Extension educators, is key in helping our growers provide safe food to the consuming public.”

OARDC and OSU Extension are the research and outreach arms, respectively, of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

Writer:
Mauricio Espinoza
espinoza.15@osu.edu
(330) 202-3550

Source:
Doug Doohan, Horticulture and Crop Science
doohan.1@osu.edu
(330) 202-3593