Community Alliance with Family Farmers - December 2015

CAFF's e-newsletter for farmers and community members

FSMA Rules are Released

by Dave Runsten

The final Produce Rule for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has been published. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is working on summaries of the Rule. Sophia Kruszewski, NSAC's attorney working on food safety, previously summarized the Preventive Controls rule, which governs farms and facilities that are processing produce and that are subject to this rule. If you are subject to that rule, you must register with FDA. Read NSAC's analysis of the rules here, as well as the two subsequent blog posts.

The first NSAC summary of the Produce Rule discusses who and what is subject to the rule, and what your obligations are under different scenarios. Even if you are subject to it you do not have to register.

Giving Thanks

While we celebrate the fall harvest, it is a good time to give thanks and think about giving back to community organizations.

Please consider supporting CAFF in one of the following ways:

- Consider joining CAFF as a member, or renewing your membership if you already have one.

- Donate to CAFF's year end appeal (choose 'year end appeal' under payment type). Read about our 2015 program work here.

- Shop at Amazon Smile. Amazon will donate 0.5% of all purchase amounts to CAFF. Make sure you use this special link!

- When you do your online shopping, use escrip.com, choose Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and follow the instructions to your merchant of choice.

The on-the-ground work that we do to assist and sustain family farmers is essential, and we appreciate your support! Have a wonderful holiday season and an healthy new year.

CAFF at EcoFarm

With this year's theme of "Regenerating our Lands and Water", the EcoFarm Conference will celebrate 36 years of inspiring, connecting and promoting sustainable farmers in Asilomar, CA. CAFF staff from multiple regions will be attending the conference; you can find us at the CAFF booth in the Exhibitor Marketplace. CAFF is also organizing two workshops for the conference: "CSA: Thinking Outside the Box" on Friday, January 22 at 10:30 am and "On Farm Food Safety Workshop for New Producers," also taking place Friday at 10:30 am. See you there!

photo courtesy of Uesugi Farms

Uesugi Farms

Uesugi Farms was originally

founded in 1979 by Joe Aiello in the Morgan Hill area. In 1994 they moved their headquarters to Gilroy, and today, Joe's son Pete is also a partner of the farm. While they started with a small-scale operation, they are now farming about 5000 acres in eight counties throughout California, plus operations in Arizona and Mexico. Aside from their vegetable growing, packing and shipping operations, they also run a pumpkin patch in Morgan Hill and a produce retail store in Gilroy. The farm specializes in growing bell peppers, chile peppers, sweet corn, Chinese cabbage, pumpkins, strawberries, and beans.

Uesugi Farms is a CAFF member, and we have partnered with them during the past few years to connect them to businesses and markets within their local community. They were one of the early participants in the Santa Clara Valley Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign and CAFF helped them to create presentation materials that they could use with potential new markets. The farm also provided produce at the 2014 and 2015 Taste of Santa Clara Valley fundraising dinner. Thank you to all of our farmer members for their hard work and dedication to bring us local, healthy food!

CAFF on CropMobster TV!

CAFF was recently interviewed by CropMobster to highlight our work in the North Coast region, as well as the Chowdown hootenanny in Sonoma. Check out the video!