This article originally appeared in The Produce News on Nov. 17, 2022; copyright The Produce News
by Center for Produce Safety
Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is passionate about making a difference in fresh produce food safety. She believes strongly in tapping the federal Specialty Crop Block Grant Program to advance the food safety of her state’s specialty crop industry.
Center for Produce Safety relies on diverse funding sources to finance its research program. Generous industry contributors are frequently noted in the news; less well-known, but equally important, are grants that fresh produce-centric state governments direct to CPS.
“When I became secretary, we knew we needed research to enhance [produce safety] understanding and to fill gaps, and we needed to get that information into hands of growers, shippers, packers, processors, distributors and retailers,” she said. Through its block grant program, from 2009 to 2021 California funded $21.2 million in produce-specific food-safety research, in the form of matching grants. Those funds doubled what CPS could have done on its own.
“The safety landscape is constantly evolving,” Ross said. “California has 400 commodities, and it’s especially challenging to determine how to best use the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program funding. We use listening sessions and stakeholder outreach to help guide and focus this process. And the feedback we get reinforces the idea that it makes sense to target funding for food safety because the research results serve such a large part of agricultural producers.”
Ross appreciates that CPS unites voices from industry, government and academia, ensuring a diversity of viewpoints and a multidisciplinary approach to CPS’s work. She has reached out to her colleagues, encouraging them to use the block grant program to fund research into practical produce safety solutions in their states. “We can put all these solutions in a toolbox and transfer that knowledge for practical applications in the field — all open platform, available to everyone,” she said.
Ross noted that the U.S. farm bill, which funds the federal Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, is up for renewal in 2022. Produce safety rules will continue to evolve, especially as more Food Safety Modernization Act implementation regulations are expected. Maintaining the ability to research produce safety and deliver learnings to industry will continue to be critical, Ross said.
“Our needs around produce safety will only increase as states, government and industry face funding, training, audit readiness and more for FSMA,” Ross said. “Block grants and the work they enable are an important topic as we address the next farm bill. We will have ongoing needs for research, solutions and improvement.”
Reprinted with permission from Center for Produce Safety’s 2021 annual report, released in August 2022. For more information about CPS and its work to fund science, find solutions and fuel change in fresh produce food safety, visit www.CenterforProduceSafety.org.