FEATURE STORY
GreenLink ® : The Digital, Secure and Confidential Online Platform for Food Safety Data By Kara Timmins D ata are components of a language. Like letters or words, they need to be organized in a specific structure to make sense. They need a context for us to appreciate the power of understanding that they bring. But like a language, the power resides in the ability to convey information to one another in a way that creates understanding and motivates action.
In a time when information is at a surplus, there’s often more data than format, and the data are jumbled together to resemble alphabet soup more than Steinbeck. As a solution to the many growers and farm managers who are standing with handfuls of data and asking, “Now what?” the Western Growers Science team has been working hard to rollout GreenLink® to help answer that question as it relates to food safety. GreenLink® is a secure, anonymous online data sharing platform that allows growers to assess and adapt food safety practices to address anticipated risks. Data submitted by participants is aggregated, anonymized and integrated with public data (like weather, CAFO locations, wildfire areas, etc.). Visuals are produced via a dashboard that provides description analytics to participants. Future goals include producing predictive and even prescriptive analytics, including modeling to provide growers with individual risk assessment analytics related to plant and harvest schedules, pre-season and pre- harvest assessments, product testing and water testing. Of the many ways to make it work for an operation, utilizing data for greater food safety insight has preemptive, proactive value. By utilizing GreenLink®, fresh produce operations can connect and transform datasets in a way that can help strengthen the industry and advance food safety. This will allow users to learn about their food safety performance and consider advanced data and analytics in their decision-making process. Once the collected raw data is added to GreenLink®, the information can exist within a clear context that can reveal patterns, empowering users to make more informed
decisions that can lead to effective action. As of now, GreenLink® offers the following features: • Product testing and water testing out- of-tolerance overviews • Various geospatial attributes relative to growing/sampling locations • Pre-season and pre-harvest inspection statistics • Benchmarking for users to anonymously compare their food safety practices with aggregated data from similar growing operations to better assess performance With these tools, grower operations can utilize their information in a way that can be translated to contribute to the industry narrative, a narrative that conveys the effort that the industry takes to commit to food safety. By tracking, monitoring and comparing metrics, growers will have a track record of their commitment
while also being able to keep an eye on potential issues. A main goal—and a goal that is a primary driver of many Western Growers initiatives—is to assure regulators and their constituents that food safety oversight can be a beneficial partnership instead of enforcement. GreenLink® is an avenue to enrich that dialogue. With data collection from a wide range of participants, participants have a clear and collective message to share about the affects of food safety initiatives. Participants have praised GreenLink’s ability to simplify data collation— aggregating various data types and sources into a single viewable form. Many have had to do this process manually themselves, if at all. While some participants may have been able to accomplish this on their own, they are only able to view their organization’s data, not industry-wide data and metrics.
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JULY | AUGUST 2023
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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