NGFN Food Safety Update on Group GAP Certification in US

[Future Harvest Docs]

USDA audits are all currently "one farm, one audit" which can be a
large financial burden for the small farmer. One of the most important
strategies to emerge from worldwide efforts to address food safety
verification is the cooperative or “group approach” to food safety, in
which a group of farms develop shared standard quality and operating
procedures and are audited as one body. USDA and Good Natured Family
Farms, a food hub based in Kansas City, have worked together over the
last two growing seasons, to pilot a group Good Agricultural Practices
(GAP) certification.


We believe domestic group GAP certification holds great promise for
smaller producers entering larger markets (such as through food hubs).
Based on the successes of the Good Natured Family Farms pilot, the
Wallace Center continues to collaborate with these and other partners
along the path toward realizing this goal.


The Wallace Center National Good Food Network, with funding from the
Kellogg Foundation, documented the pilot in Kansas City, enumerated
the next steps toward wider use of group-based certification, and has
collected several relevant resources in the following report.

You can download the full report by following this link:
http://ngfn.org/resources/ngfn-database/knowledge/Wallace%20Center%20Group%20GAP%20Report%20December%202012%20with%20Appendices.pdf/view