Supporting underserved California leafy-green producers` FSMA compliance, through interdisciplinary food safety, communication and marketing training

Project's main goal:This is an inter-disciplinary and collaborative food safety outreach project targeting Hispanic farm operators of small and very small leafy greens' operations in the Santa Maria valley of California. Our goal is to provide an inter-disciplinary food safety regulation training to the farmers in our target group.The outreach program consists of three parts (with activities listed sequentially):Produce Safety Alliance grower training for 40 small farm operators of Hispanic origin and Cal Poly / Allan Hancock College undergraduate studentsIn-person day-long field visits to 15 individual farms in Santa Maria valley by personnel from Cal Poly and Allan Hancock College (including four professors and multiple students), to train and assist farmer participants with:Produce safety rule compliance, and farm food safety plan development, review and consulting, led by Dr. Amanda Lathrop (Food Science, Cal Poly) and Prof. Erin Krier (Agriculture, Allan Hancock College), assisted by undergraduate Cal Poly and Allan Hancock College studentsMarketing initiatives related to food safety and data training, led by Dr. Jeta Rudi Polloshka (Agribusiness, Cal Poly) and assisted by Cal Poly Agribusiness studentsCrisis communication and stakeholder engagement plan development, led by Dr. Karen Cannon (Brock Center for Agricultural Communication, Cal Poly) and assisted by Brock associatesCal Poly and Allan Hancock College students will be intensely involved with all aspects of the outreach project outlined above. By involving students, we seek to train the next generation of food safety specialists, much needed in the food and agriculture sector.