CAFF Food Safety Program highlights

The CAFF Food Safety Program continues to assist small and mid-sized farmers in developing and implementing their food safety plans.

Highlights from the past few months include CAFF:

• Developing approximately 25 food safety plans. Binders with CAFF information, “Farming with Food Safety and Conservation in Mind ” (a brochure developed by Wild Farm Alliance and CAFF), a biodiversity flier and a food safety checklist were also distributed to each of the farms.

• Providing food safety workshops in Willits, Morgan Hill, Davis and Kingsburg.

• Conducting outreach at the EcoFarm Conference: moderated three workshops and spoke at two of these.  Subjects were Food Safety, Slow Money and Homemade Food Act CFO. The CAFF table in the Exhibitor Marketplace was well attended by CAFF staff and interested passers.


• Mailing out an informational letter to direct market farmers in CA, which was received well enough to generate approximately five phone calls per day in January. These calls have generated a 6-week booking / wait list for food safety planning assistance as well as an increase in new CAFF farmer memberships.

• Contacting  buyers (such as Veritable Vegetable, Earl’s Organics) and meeting dates scheduled to discuss buyer food safety interests and requirements from farmers.

In addition, CAFF has been paying close attention to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
CAFF’s work with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition paid off as FDA has agreed to re-write some of the aspects of their food safety rules that we most objected to. We met with the FDA officials in Washington DC in late January and they were very conciliatory. But in any case we will have another chance to comment this summer after they issue their second draft.

We held FSMA workshops with farmers in Chico, Watsonville, San Luis Obispo, Davis, and Santa Barbara, in collaboration with Wild Farm Alliance and CCOF, to discuss the proposed rules and encourage people to comment to FDA. FDA received over 20,000 comments on FSMA.

If you have questions about any of these activities, please contact Dave Runsten at dave@caff.org.

To comment on this post, click on the "comments:" link that appears below (after "Posted by CAFF").  If you have questions about how to comment, please email events@caff.org.

Food Safety Modernization Act: Deadline to Comment is now November 22

The comment period on FDA's proposed rules for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) now closes on November 22. If you are a farmer who produces fruits, vegetables, or nuts, or your farm processes any kind of food, this law will affect you. It will be particularly valuable for farmers to submit comments to the FDA as the rules were not written by farmers and do not take into account all of the situations found on farms. The FDA needs to hear from you about how these regulations might affect your business and your ability to farm.

We have put on the CAFF website links to the two main rules (Produce Rule and Preventive Controls Rule) as well as detailed instructions about how to comment to FDA. We have also posted links to a series of issue briefs on the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's (NSAC) web site that discuss some aspects of the rules that might most concern farmers, as well as all of the other materials we are handing out at workshops.

Non-farmers can find a comment template on the NSAC website.  

If you have any questions, please contact Dave Runsten at dave@caff.org.

To comment on this post, click on the "comments:" link that appears below (after "Posted by CAFF").  If you have questions about how to comment, please email events@caff.org or call 530.756.8518x12.

#fixFSMA

If you eat food – that’s all of us! – you should be concerned about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s new Food Safety laws, which unfairly target local food efforts, undermine sustainable and organic practices, and will reduce access to fresh, local food in your community.

The FDA is implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) which was passed by Congress in 2010.

They are issuing five rules, two of which are of great concern to U.S. farmers: the Produce Rule and the Preventive Controls Rule.

Join us in weighing in with FDA today.

Our website has information about how you can comment: http://caff.org/programs/foodsafety/fsma/


CAFF will also be holding informational workshops for farmers, to discuss how to comment to the FDA and answer questions.
October 18, 3pm, TS Glide Ranch, Davis, CA 
October 24, 3pm, California Grill, Freedom, CA  
November 4,1pm, Glenn County Farm Bureau Office, Orland, CA 

November 8, 6:30pm, San Luis Obispo Grange, San Luis Obispo 

November 11, 5:00pm, Watershed Resource Center, Santa Barbara

To comment on this post, click on the "comments:" link that appears below (after "Posted by CAFF").  If you have questions about how to comment, please email events@caff.org or call 530.756.8518x12.