Food Safety and Fellowship

By: Billy Mitchell

One of the many strengths of the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) is their ability to build community. A collaboration between Cornell University, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) , and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the PSA aims to prepare fresh produce growers to meet the regulatory requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule (PSR). Thousands of growers, educators, and community members have strengthened their food safety knowledge and built community at PSA Grower Trainings across the country and globally. For produce safety educators in the US, it's rare to find someone who has not engaged with PSA staff on some level-either through attending or leading a training, discussing Good Agricultural Practices with director Betsy Bihn, conducting Spanish language outreach and learning adult education best practices with Laura Acuña-Maldonado, Davis Blasini, Yulie Meneses, and Mariana Villarreal Silva, or laughing at a cheesy joke from Don Stoeckel-and felt more connected to a strong and vibrant produce safety education community.
Recently, the PSA has been piloting a Produce Safety Fellows Program, connecting educators, farmers, and students from across the county. Local Food Safety Collaborative spoke with Andrew Widmer, a Food Science graduate student working under Dr. Laurel Dunn at the University of Georgia (Widmer and article co-author Billy Mitchell are labmates), about his recent experience in the fellowship. Widmer focuses his research on the diversity and distribution of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in irrigation ponds, and how it may be useful for predicting the occurrence of pathogenic E. coli or Salmonella. He plans to enter the world of research and extension after graduation. (Considering the recent rollout of the FSMA Final Rule on Pre-harvest agricultural water requirements, Irrigation water is a HOT topic in produce safety right now.)
Like many food scientists and food safety educators, Widmer's introduction to food safety and microbiology was conducting research and hitting the books at a University-not out in the field growing, packing, or holding produce. His University experience provided many opportunities to develop a deep knowledge of food safety hazards and risks, including how to manage and reduce them. Still, it did not always leave time for first-hand experience interacting with growers. One reason Andrew said he was ecstatic about the opportunity to participate in the Fellows program was "the chance to connect with and learn from farmers from across the country."
Andrew has been impressed by the diversity of backgrounds and experiences within the fellowship, especially by how many of the participants have farming backgrounds. He said he has been learning alongside farmers who also do "significant community outreach" and that "those primarily involved in serving farmers or organizing were often farmers themselves as well." To Andrew, combining his background in research with the other fellows' farming backgrounds has created a collaborative balance that allows them to answer food safety questions together and provide depth to what they already knew and were learning. Andrew has also found value in the opportunity to learn about both produce safety and adult education from the PSA staff.
If you've attended a PSA grower training, you may have noticed all of the work that went into getting the training ready for the day: ordering books and materials for each attendee, organizing the room, and finding hot coffee, tea, and snacks to help power learners through an entire day of learning. Andrew, while learning about how to prepare for a training, said he was "impressed by the amount of time that went into the training itself - a typically day-long grower training is the culmination of untold hours of hard work by the organizers at PSA and each training requires significant investment in review and refinement by the trainers." He said he was also "introduced to a wealth of resources," many of which can be found online at https://cals.cornell.edu/produce-safety-alliance/resources.
Like many growers and educators who have attended a PSA Grower Training, Andrew reflected that he "came away from this experience feeling motivated to begin using what I've learned" and found that the experience gave him "an even deeper respect for those who grow our produce." For opportunities to stay connected with the PSA and build your food safety community, consider signing up for the PSA newsletters and mailing lists and catching up on past webinars.

For more producer focused stores and information, please visit the Local Food Safety Collaborative website along with the Food Safety Resource Clearinghouse for a curated source of food safety guides, factsheets, templates, and more. Don't forget to follow LFSC on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates on the latest food safety news.

This project website is supported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award TBD totaling $1,000,000 with 100 percent funded by FDA/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by FDA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.