As a collaboration with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and Monterey County Farm Bureau, California Agricultural Neighbors (CAN) continues to make progress on adjacent land interactions to better understand and manage potential risk intersections when produce growers, cattle ranchers, vineyard managers, compost processors and wildlife lands operate or co-exist as neighbors.
Significant progress has been made by all four work groups, as detailed in this summary update:
- Work Group 1: Foster Neighbor-to-Neighbor Interactions and Conversations – A draft resource guide has been created for adjacent neighbors that outlines topics for discussion that improves mutual understanding of activities relevant to safe fresh food production. A pilot program is underway including direct interviews with neighbors to refine the discussion guide and to facilitate, encourage and support neighbor discussions in the Salinas Valley region.
- Work Group 2: Build a Research Roadmap – A framework has been built around research gaps related to survival, persistence and amplification of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) in the environment, along with mechanisms of movement and transport (air, water, animals, machinery). Prioritization of these research needs has been classified into high (likely to provide solutions), moderate (filling knowledge gaps) and low (unlikely to be defined or implemented).
- Work Group 3: Create a Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Framework (QMRA) – Goals include: develop a skeleton framework for adjacent land operations (fresh food production fields, rangeland, vineyard and compost); build a list of presumptive mechanisms for transfer, persistence, survival and amplification of STEC factors with prioritization based on the research roadmap (filling in of information gaps); determine weather and abiotic conditions that may influence risk and survival. This is proving to be quite a complex set of values to be studied and delineated within the QMRA skeletal framework.
- Work Group 4: Knowledge Transfer from Research to Practice – Completed one-on-one interviews with stakeholders to create summary of ideas for consideration, along with capacity building. A white paper will be published with actions and recommendations; a review of other successful programs will be integrated into how and when knowledge about food safety practices in adjacent lands can be promoted and implemented.
A possible separate work group is contemplated focusing on defining incentives for adoption of field and rangeland practices, drawing on the outcomes of Work Groups 3 and 4.
CAN continues to make progress in redefining how neighbor-to-neighbor interactions are key to food safety practices, with sensible approaches to real world solutions that can be implemented universally, and as a model for widespread adoption. CAN continues to leverage connections to avoid duplication of resources and research efforts, promoting a unified message about adjacent lands interactions. A more comprehensive update on these four key action areas is anticipated in fall 2024.