Why and What You Need to Know About the Food Safety Modernization Act

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is a new federal food safety law that will significantly impact how food in New England and around the country is grown, handled, and processed. Whether you are a farmer, a food buyer or processor, or someone working toward a thriving and resilient New England farm and food system, you have a stake in how FSMA is implemented and can help make it a workable law that improves food safety and supports the type and scale of agriculture we have here in New England.

Get Educated About FSMA!

To help stakeholders understand the potential impact of the FSMA, American Farmland Trust recently joined the Conservation Law Foundation, Food Solutions New England, Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation, New England Farmers Union, Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Rhode Island Division of Agriculture, UMass Extension, and University of Rhode Island in hosting a webinar for New England food producers, buyers, and those working toward a resilient New England food system. The webinar focused on two rules that have recently been released by the Food and Drug Administration—the Standards for the Growing, Packing, Harvesting and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption (the “produce” rule), which addresses farm practices, and the Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food (the “preventive controls” rule), which governs facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food.

Dr. Joanne Burke, University of New Hampshire, Network Design Team:Food Solutions New England, joanne.burke@unh.edu

Dr. Richard Bonanno, Extension Educator, UMass Extension, President, Massachusetts Farm Burea, rich@mfbf.net

Dr. Lori Pivarnik, Coordinator, Food Safety Outreach/Research Nutrition and Food Sciences Department University of Rhode Island, lpivarnik@mail.uri.edu

Roger Noonan, President, New England Farmers Union, middlebranchfarm@comcast.net

Download info at http://www.farmland.org/programs/states/ma/Food-Safety-Modernization-Act.asp

http://vimeo.com/72300531