The GAP certification assistance program is a cost-share/reimbursement program designed to assist the specialty crop industry with the cost of an operation’s GAP food safety audit.
Tag: GAPs
The Bottom Line #8
In this issue: I’m Back! Welcome our new berry specialist, Heather Kase. Strategies for NYS Grown and Certified Grant. Reminder to update your farm information in the NYS Ag and Markets Farm Directory. Last Call for Producers impacted by 2022 Natural Disasters to apply for Emergency Relief Program. Opportunity for farmer’s market farms to participate in Point-of-Sale Data research project. Automatic vegetable transplanter. GAP Certification Cost Share, Overtime Tax Credit Advance. Upcoming programs.
Assessing the costs and returns of on-farm food safety improvements: A survey of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) training participants.
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).