SCIENCE TREMENDOUS LEARNINGS IN 2022.
DATA SCIENCE The First Industry Food Safety Data Platform for Fresh Produce: GreenLink ™ Bringing vision to fruition, 2022 was a year of tremendous growth for the Food Safety Data Sharing Platform (now officially branded and trademarked GreenLink ™ ).
to develop the capacity within the industry to quantify, report, and field validate sustainability indicators described in the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops (SISC) for three NRCS Conservation Practice Standards - CPS 340 Cover Cropping, CPS 590 Nutrient Management and CPS 808 Soil Carbon Amendment. Climate Change and Sustainability Working Group WG Science started a member-based working group addressing the following questions: What should WG be working on? What should we be communicating, how, and to whom? What are the opportunities and resources that would be most meaningful to our members? What pressures/requirements and/or incentives are our members facing from the buyer and regulatory community?
Recruitment of new participants continued for the platform. The user base has expanded past its initial five pilot participants to now include 12 handling operations representing over 100 specialty crops growers and more than 1,000 ranches. Platform Development in the final months of the year has expanded the scope beyond pre-harvest analytics to include pre-season and will soon shift focus to development of post-harvest visualizations and insights. We’ve also added new data layers from publicly available data sources, such as California Wildfire Fire data for active/historic fires and CAFO data from the EPA database. Outreach and Support has been extensive—the Science team has received numerous invitations and presented at nearly two dozen events throughout the country this year with positive feedback from members of the fresh produce supply chain and industry stakeholders.
FOOD SAFETY Agricultural Water Safety Update
WG Science submitted comments on the proposed FDA Produce Safety Rule requirements associated with agricultural water use (Subpart E) on April 2022. Our comments emphasized the need for flexibility and accountability, raised implementation challenges, and encouraged the agency to consider conflict resolution as interpretation issues are anticipated.
ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE USDA NRCS Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities
Evaluation of FDA’s Human Foods Program At the request of FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, the Reagan-Udhall Foundation facilitated an evaluation of the agency’s Human Foods Program, including an end-to-end review of its organizational structure, resources, and culture. WG provided both verbal and written comments on Sept. 30 during the foundation’s public meeting and comment period. Among the recommendations we provided: Enact a strong sustained prevention agenda for farms that
Last February, the WG Science and Government Affairs teams collaborated with several academic, industry and regulatory partners to submit grant applications to the USDA under the Climate Smart Commodities Program. We are excited to report that one of the five projects was selected and has secured funding to move forward. This project team will work closely with a leading specialty crop producer, multiple small growers, and students from Hispanic Serving Institutions
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online