Organic agricultural professionals are invited to join the CCOF Foundation and Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) for a series of webinars on how the new federal food safety regulations intersect with organic regulations. This, the third webinar in the series, will review Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) topics particularly relevant to organic growers including water, manure, compost, and wild and domestic animals.
FSMA compliance dates for some farms start in January 2018, and professionals who work with organic growers may face increased questions about food safety during interactions with growers. Get up to speed on FSMA requirements, as well as food safety topics pertinent to organic growers, so you can answer basic questions with confidence and redirect growers to important food safety resources.
In the third webinar of the series Food Safety and Organic, Kali Feiereisel and Dave Runsten from CAFF will review FSMA’s specific requirements for “soil amendments of animal origin,” such as compost, manure, and fish emulsion. Feiereisel and Runsten will also give an update on FSMA water requirements, including explanations on what farmers need to do to be in compliance. Jo Ann Baumgartner of Wild Farm Alliance will join the conversation to share her expertise in assisting growers with addressing both food safety and natural resource conservation on their operations. Baumgartner will cover FSMA expectations for wild and domestic animals, monitoring for significant animal contamination, and land use. FSMA does not allow destroying habitat in the name of food safety, a critical fact for organic growers to understand so that they continue to abide by organic regulations while complying with food safety regulations.
Time will be set aside for questions and answers. CCOF’s Food Safety Program Manager Jacob Guth will also be on hand to answer questions about third-party food safety certification and GLOBALG.A.P.
If you missed the first two webinars in this series, check out the recordings of FSMA 101: A Webinar for Organic Agricultural Professionals and Requirements for Farms that Must Fully Comply with FSMA.
About Our Speakers
Kali Feiereisel serves as CAFF’s food safety specialist. She provides food safety technical assistance to farmers as they further develop their practices to meet new requirements. In addition to her background in diversified vegetable production, Feiereisel recently studied food safety, local food systems, and food and agriculture policy while completing her graduate degree in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dave Runsten serves as CAFF’s policy director. He directs CAFF’s policy work, as well as food safety and water stewardship outreach. Runsten is an agricultural economist who conducted research on topics such as contract agriculture in Mexico, fair trade coffee in Oaxaca, regional competitiveness of the produce industry, living wages in Los Angeles, and farm labor in California.
Jo Ann Baumgartner is the executive director of the Wild Farm Alliance (WFA). She is the author of many publications on the intersection between biodiversity conservation and agriculture, the conservation benefits and mandates within the National Organic Program regulations, and the co-management of food safety and conservation. Before joining WFA in 2001, she addressed crop, livestock, and fiber issues, was senior research editor for a book of California's rare wildlife species, worked on a research project growing crops using reclaimed water on raw eaten crops, and was an organic farmer for over a decade. For her master's research in the environmental studies department at San Jose State University, Baumgartner studied bird predation of insects in apple orchards. Her undergraduate degree is in soil and water science from University of California, Davis.
About Our Partners
This webinar is a collaboration between the CCOF Foundation and CAFF. This webinar is funded through a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (WSARE) program.
Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) builds sustainable food and farming systems through policy advocacy and on-the-ground programs that create more resilient family farms, communities, and ecosystems.
WSARE: This webinar is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under an award through the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE) program. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider.