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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] GAP
  • Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:55:27 -0500


On Feb 10, 2010, at 10:25 PM, Bill Shoemaker wrote:

Its not a set of regulations, yet. May never be. But its a set of standards with a focus on food safety that some wholesale buyers are expecting to be met by their growers, often with 3rd party auditing. Primus Labs is one such 3rd party auditor. The USDA also has a set of GAP standards that growers can use. I'm away from my office so I don't have links, but if you search for Primus Labs and look through their website you'll learn quite a bit.

Honestly, if you sell direct to consumers, I don't think you need to worry,...too much. But it may affect consumer expectations in the long run. I worry a bit about how big players might sell this and scare consumers away from "farmers markets". Be aware is a good caution.

Bill


While some of the GAPS standards are pretty basic food safety there are some aspects of this that are highly controversial. In particular, some seem to have interpreted this as making it necessary to exclude all animals (including wildlife) from the fields and also all nearby areas; which in some areas can cause serious ecological problems as well as huge costs to the growers. As contamination problems seem to have a lot more to do with feedlot cattle than with wildlife, and as excluding normal bacterial life may encourage rather than discourage pathogens, this also may be making the food system more dangerous instead of less.

However, again, a lot of the GAP's is basic stuff we all should be doing -- wash your hands, don't apply fresh manure to the lettuce, etc.

Reading up on the subject is a good idea. Here's one out of a lot of possible sources (and I agree with the person who suggested the Cornell site for the basic stuff being currently put out as advice):



-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale






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