eCommons

 

Impacts of the Food Safety Modernization Act on On-Farm Food Safety Practices for Small and Sustainable Produce Growers

Other Titles

Abstract

We use data from a national survey of fruit and vegetable growers to examine the current prevalence and cost burden of food safety practices required in the proposed Produce Rule implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act. In particular, we analyze the influence of farm size and farming practices on the probability of adopting food safety measures that would be required by the Produce Rule; and we analyze how the costs of using those food safety practices vary by farm size and farm practices. Majorities of our respondents currently employ most of the food safety practices that would be required under the proposed Produce Rule, but a large number of growers will nonetheless face significant changes to meet the Rule’s requirements. We do not find any effect of farm size on the probability of using food safety measures, but we find that food safety costs significant economies of scale. Sustainable farming practices are negatively correlated with the probability of testing and conducting field inspections, and they are associated with increased costs for testing and sampling, harvest container sanitation, and written records relative to conventional growers. While our estimates indicate that small and sustainable growers would face more significant changes and more burdensome costs to comply with the proposed Produce Rule, in our sample most of them would ultimately be exempt from the rule either based on farm size or the Tester-Hagan exemption.

Journal / Series

Volume & Issue

Description

Sponsorship

Date Issued

2015-07-01

Publisher

Keywords

food safety; Food Safety Modernization Act; Produce Rule; compliance cost; regulatory burden

Location

Effective Date

Expiration Date

Sector

Employer

Union

Union Local

NAICS

Number of Workers

Committee Chair

Committee Co-Chair

Committee Member

Degree Discipline

Degree Name

Degree Level

Related Version

Related DOI

Related To

Related Part

Based on Related Item

Has Other Format(s)

Part of Related Item

Related To

Related Publication(s)

Link(s) to Related Publication(s)

References

Link(s) to Reference(s)

Previously Published As

Government Document

ISBN

ISMN

ISSN

Other Identifiers

Rights

Required Publisher Statement: Copyright held by the authors. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.

Rights URI

Types

conference papers and proceedings

Accessibility Feature

Accessibility Hazard

Accessibility Summary

Link(s) to Catalog Record