Save the Date! | |
NCGT Annual Partner Meeting
February 24, 2016
12:00 - 3:30 pm
North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro NC
More information to come! |
About NCGT | |
GOAL | Bring more locally-grown foods - produce, meat, dairy, and seafood - into mainstream retail and food service supply chains, thus enhancing food security by increasing access to local foods and by strengthening the economics of small to mid-sized farm and fishing operations.
STRATEGY | Identify the most promising solutions by which local production and associated value-added activities can enter local retail and food service markets, pilot these solutions in North Carolina, and evaluate and report the results for the benefit of other states and regions.
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Greetings all,
Thanks for reading our monthly newsletter and please let us know what you think!
Sincerely, The NCGT Management Team
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NCGT Support Advancing Fresh Produce Food Safety Work Statewide
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Fresh Produce GAPs Workshop. Photo by Diane Ducharme.
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NC Growing Together is helping to advance fresh produce food safety work statewide. Working in partnership with North Carolina State University, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, NC Cooperative County Centers, and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA), NCGT has been sponsoring Fresh Produce Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) workshops throughout the state.
"This workshop series informs growers about practical tools to identify food safety hazards on their farm, explores the GAP certification process, and provides guided assistance in the creation and implementation of a customized food safety plan," explains Diane Ducharme, NC Cooperative Extension Associate in Horticulture & Food Safety and the GAPs Program Coordinator. More information and workshop dates through February 2016 can be found here.
To accommodate busy growers' schedules, a new web-based course has been created as well. Through NCGT support, the Fresh Produce GAPs Workshop Series will be offered online, free of cost, to North Carolina growers. This new web-based course will allow growers to cover the same material as the workshop series, in their own time and at their own pace. More information about the free online workshops can be found here.
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Lunch break at a GAPs workshop. Photo by Diane Ducharme.
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With recent food safety regulations passed under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), "the writing was on the wall," says Ducharme. "I am happy to say that the NCGT project served as the catalyst for discussions on building capacity around food safety in light of FSMA and increasing market requirements," she says.
NC Cooperative Extension will soon be hiring eight new area specialized agents who will focus on food safety issues: three in Family and Consumer Sciences, two in Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, two in Horticultural Science, and one in Animal Science. "It represents the different responsibilities within the food supply chain affected by FSMA regulations," explains Ducharme.
NCGT also partners with the NC Fresh Produce Safety Task Force. The goal of the Task Force is to ensure that North Carolina has a competitive, vibrant and safe fresh produce industry supported through the research, teaching and outreach programs of NC State University, N.C. A&T State University, NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Farm Bureau and industry groups. The task force offers guidance and resources on Food Safety issues.
For information about how growers can register for free for the Online Fresh Produce GAPs Workshop Series, please contact Diane Ducharme at [email protected].
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NCGT, N.C. A&T Sponsoring Veggie Compass Trainings, Farmer Trial
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Ellen Polishuk leading a Veggie Compass workshop at CFSA's Sustainable Agriculture Conference.
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NC Growing Together and the Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University are sponsoring trainings for farmers and extension agents on how to use the Veggie Compass, a whole-farm profit management tool developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The tool is free and can be downloaded at http://www.veggiecompass.com/.
NCGT and the Cooperative Extension Program sponsored a day-long training and a workshop on the Veggie Compass at Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's recent Sustainable Agriculture Conference. The trainings featured Ellen Polishuk of Potomac Vegetable Farms.
"The Veggie Compass trainings always get excellent feedback from growers and extension agents," says Laura Lauffer, Project Director for Local Farms and Foods at N.C. A&T, and a recent addition to the NCGT team. "With each training, there is a new network of farmers who share their production and business management experiences, providing a multiplier effect for the training that yields additional learning beyond just presenting the tool."
N.C. A&T is also recruiting ten farmers with small to medium-scale operations to participate in a pilot trial of the Veggie Compass tool as a means to increase farm profitability. Lauffer will be working with growers to use the tool to assess the most profitable crops in their system with a focus on both marketing and production costs.
She will be working with Dr. Noah Ranells, N.C. A&T Agribusiness Management and Marketing Extension Specialist and NCGT project leader at N.C. A&T. Says Ranells, "these trainings open the door for more detailed information on cost of production by specific crops as well as profitability of different marketing channels, regardless of the current level of record-keeping."
If you'd like to participate in the NCGT/N.C. A&T Veggie Compass trial, please contact Laura Lauffer at [email protected] or 336-285-4690. Farmers should have a basic familiarity with spreadsheets, ideally will be working with their local Extension Agent, and will be given a $300 stipend for their time.
Save the dates! In 2016, NCGT will be sponsoring three workshops for Extension Agents on how to use the Veggie Compass:
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NCGT Releases Postharvest Handling Videos | |
NCGT has released two videos that illustrate best postharvest handling practices to maintain product quality and extend shelf-life, limiting post-harvest disorders and loss of sales:
NCGT will be sponsoring three full-day Postharvest Handling for Enhanced Shelf Life workshops in Spring 2016, time and location TBD.
Geared toward producers selling into wholesale markets, as well as Extension Agents who are assisting growers with wholesale market expansion, these full-day, hands-on workshops will offer a variety of tools to assist growers in meeting US Grade #1 Standards. The day will include a demonstration of two postharvest cooling techniques -- forced air cooling, and room cooling with the use of a coolbot and the NC State Pack n Cool System -- and hands on grading of produce by the participants.
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Project Contact Information
Rebecca Dunning, NCGT Project and Research Coordinator, [email protected], 919-389-2220
Nancy Creamer, Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC State University; and Project Director, NC Growing Together, [email protected], 919-515-9447
Noah Ranells, NCGT Principal Investigator at NC A&T State University, Cooperative Extension Program, [email protected], 336-285-4658
Laura Lauffer, Project Coordinator, Local Farms and Food, NC A & T State University Cooperative Extension Program, [email protected], 336-285-4690
Michelle Schroeder-Moreno, NCGT Academic Coordinator, [email protected], 919-513-0085
Joanna Lelekacs, NCGT Extension and Training Coordinator, [email protected], 919-244-5269
Patricia Tripp, NCGT Produce Supply Chain Development Liaison, [email protected], 336-458-6980
JJ Richardson, NCGT Website and Communications Coordinator, [email protected], 919-889-8219
This project is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grant no. 2013-68004-20363 of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
� 2013-2015 NC Growing Together
www.ncgrowingtogether.org
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