The cost of implementation is often cited as a primary barrier to implementing food safety practices in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) on the farm. Costs include infrastructure and equipment upgrades and time and labor to implement new practices and maintain recordkeeping systems.  The benefits of compliance with FSMA include maintaining and expanding existing market channel sales, accessing new markets and buyers, and strengthening of their farm brand to prospective buyers due to their food safety improvements. The researchers found the food safety benefit cost ratio for all farm size categories was above 1, indicating that, on average, the benefits of food safety improvements exceeded the costs, regardless of farm size. The average across all farms was 4.61 implying that the benefits received were 4.61 times that of their annual cost. There was a big difference between the benefit cost ratio for farms with a third-party audit (13.33) and without a third-party audit (1.57).