PULLMAN – Food safety begins on the farm. However, farmers encounter differing and sometimes contradictory information on how best to assure the safety of the produce they raise.
WSU Extension is offering a two-part series of workshops at locations in both eastern and western Washington on Good Agricultural Practices, or GAPs, to provide growers science-based information for addressing on-farm food safety issues. The series offers an introduction to food safety and risk management, and the opportunity to develop a farm-specific GAPs program farming system.
The first workshop will provide information on GAPs and assessment tools for participants’ farming systems. Participants will be contacted after the first workshop with assistance for their farm assessments.
The second workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to work with trainers to develop a specific GAPs program for their farming systems.
The workshops feature presentations from a multi-disciplinary group of WSU faculty along with producer, market manager and regulatory perspectives. The registration fee is $75 for both workshops. Details, specific locations, registration and updated information are available at http://foodsafety.wsu.edu.
All of the daylong workshops begin at 8 a.m., except those in Yakima that will begin at 8:30 am. Those interested in attending the Yakima workshops should contact Cathy Blood at WSU for assistance at blood@wsu.edu or 509/335-2845.
The two-part workshop series will be held at the following locations:
Wenatchee: Workshop 1: Jan. 22 Workshop 2: Mar. 17
WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center
1100 N. Western, Wenatchee
Yakima: Workshop 1: Jan. 23 Workshop 2: Mar. 18
WSU Yakima Extension office
104 N. 1st Street, Suite 204, Yakima
Puyallup: Workshop 1: Jan. 30-31 Workshop 2: Mar. 3
Specific location for workshop 1 TBA
Workshop 2: WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center
7612 Pioneer Way E., Puyallup
Workshop 2 only sessions for growers who have already attended workshop 1 will be held at these locations:
Tri-cities: Feb. 23
WSU Tri-Cities campus
2710 University Drive, Richland
Mount Vernon: Mar. 5
WSU Mount Vernon NWREC
16650 State Route 536, Mount Vernon
Spokane: Mar. 9
WSU Spokane campus
412 E. Spokane Falls Blvd., Spokane
For more information and registration visit http://foodsafety@wsu.edu or contact Cathy Blood at blood@wsu.edu or by calling 509-335-2845.
The workshops are co-sponsored by WSU Extension, the Western Center for Risk Management Education, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES).
