NCGT Monthly Project Update

In This Issue:

Save the Date! NCGT Annual Partner Meeting

NCGT Support Advancing Fresh Produce Food Safety Work Statewide

NCGT, N.C. A&T Sponsoring Veggie Compass Trainings, Farmer Trial

NCGT Releases Postharvest Handling Videos

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.

November 30, 2015

Greetings all,

Thanks for reading our monthly newsletter and please let us know what you think!

Sincerely,

The NCGT Management Team

NCGT Support Advancing Fresh Produce Food Safety Work Statewide

Fresh Produce GAPs Workshop. Photo by Diane Ducharme.

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.

Lunch break at a GAPs workshop. Photo by Diane Ducharme.

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.

More Fresh Produce GAPs information and resources can be found on the NCGT website's Resources for Producers page, or visit NC Cooperative Extension's Fresh Produce Safety website.

For information about how growers can register for free for the Online Fresh Produce GAPs Workshop Series, please contact Diane Ducharme at diane_ducharme@ncsu.edu.

NCGT, N.C. A&T Sponsoring Veggie Compass Trainings, Farmer Trial

Ellen Polishuk leading a Veggie Compass workshop at CFSA's Sustainable Agriculture Conference.

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 ldlauffe@ncat.edu 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:

January 12: Rocky Mount (Gateway Technology Center)
- Register at: http://go.ncsu.edu/farm_profits_rocky-mount- Registration Deadline: December 18

January 19: Newton (Newton Public Library)
- Register at: http://go.ncsu.edu/farm_profits_newton
- Registration Deadline: December 18

February 9: Clinton (Sampson County Livestock Arena)
- Register at: http://go.ncsu.edu/farm_profits_clinton
- Registration Deadline: December 18

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:

Best Practices for Temperature and Humidity Management for Fresh Produce

Best Practices for Grading and Packing of Fresh Produce

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.

For more resources on postharvest handling, please see the Resources for Producers section of the NCGT website.

Project Contact Information

Rebecca Dunning, NCGT Project and Research Coordinator, rebecca_dunning@ncsu.edu, 919-389-2220

Nancy Creamer, Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC State University; and Project Director, NC Growing Together, nancy_creamer@ncsu.edu, 919-515-9447

Noah Ranells, NCGT Principal Investigator at NC A&T State University, Cooperative Extension Program, nnranell@ncat.edu, 336-285-4658

Laura Lauffer, Project Coordinator, Local Farms and Food, NC A & T State University Cooperative Extension Program, ldlauffe@ncat.edu, 336-285-4690

Michelle Schroeder-Moreno, NCGT Academic Coordinator, michelle_schroeder@ncsu.edu, 919-513-0085

Joanna Lelekacs, NCGT Extension and Training Coordinator, joanna_lelekacs@ncsu.edu, 919-244-5269

John Day, NCGT Military Partnership Coordinator, john_day@ncsu.edu, 704-785-6670

Krista Morgan, Locally Grown Accounts Representative, Lowes Foods; and Lowes Foods Liaison, NC Growing Together, krista.morgan@lowesfoods.com, 336-775-3218 ext. 53218

Patricia Tripp, NCGT Produce Supply Chain Development Liaison, trish@artisanfoodsolutions.com, 336-458-6980

JJ Richardson, NCGT Website and Communications Coordinator, jj_richardson@ncsu.edu, 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