Using SEED As A Guide For Food Safety

From the American Vegetable Grower April 2008 article "Mixing Reason With Reality"

With so many lingering unanswered questions about food safety and how it affects your farm, it can be difficult to make sense of where you need to be headed in the future. However, the components of American Vegetable Grower’s SEED initiative can serve as a helpful guide.

• Stand Tall Together -- This can involve different parts of the industry coming together to self-regulate themselves, or it can mean growers working as a team to make sure that any regulations that come their way are fair and reasonable.
• Engage The Consumer -- The consumer wil ultimately decide for themselves whether they think your food is safe. But you can make it easier for them. Make every attempt to educate your customers about the food safety practices you have in place at your farm. If your customers trust you, they’ll be more likely to continue buying from you even if there’s a reported safety problem with a crop you happen to be selling.
• Embrace New Technology -- There are several companies in the produce industry developing products that are designed to reduce the likelihood of foodborne illness problems occurring, such as sanitation equipment and pathogen detectors. Keep yourself educated on these products, and whether they would be a good fit for your operation.
• Deliver Quality -- It seems like a basic concept, but if your food isn’t safe, it isn’t exactly high-quality, is it? The more you work to prevent a food safety problem from occurring at your farm, the better quality your produce will be.