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<OL> <LI>Develop pre-harvest and post-harvest food defense teaching modules to be integrated into existing undergraduate classes in a cross disciplinary approach. <LI>Develop pre-harvest and post-harvest food defense training to ensure a safer food supply in Missouri. <LI> Develop a web-based information portal for use by Missouri food and farming industry operators that provides overview of food defense plans, describes steps in creating a plan, provides generic food defense plan templates and functions as resource base for those needing to create a plan.
Non-Technical Summary: Securing a safe food supply is critical to the success of the food industry. There has been increased awareness about the need to address this since 9/11. The focus of this effort is to develop a comprehensive and integrated food defense educational program for animal products to be used by undergraduate educators at land grant universities, producers, processors and retailers. <P> Approach: The focus of this effort is to develop a comprehensive and integrated food defense educational program for animal products to be used by undergraduate educators at land grant universities, producers, processors and retailers. To do this, undergraduate teaching modules will be developed and integrated into three curriculums, animal science, food science and hotel and restaurant management in order teach food defense from gate to plate. These teaching modules will then be used as the basis for three distinct extension education programs. The first program will be a train the trainer program for extension educators, vocational agriculture instructors, and health professionals from across the state that will provide resources and technical assistance to producers, processors and retailers in their region regarding food defense plans. The second program will be a non-certificate, half-day workshop that will provide a brief introduction to food defense plans, explain the necessity for creating them, and provide access to materials and web-based resources that participants can use to create and implement food defense plans in their own operations. These trainings will take place in the second and third years of the project, and will be provided to producers, processors and retailers at industry annual meetings such as the Missouri Cattleman Association, Missouri Association of Meat Processors, and Missouri Farmers Market Association among others. The third program will be a certificate, eight hours training that will target livestock producers involved in direct consumer marketing relationships, livestock auction operators, meat processors, farmers markets and other retailers. This full-day training will focus on developing a generic food defense plan for participants food and farming operations. These trainings will equip participants with a working knowledge of food defense plans.