Position Title:Area CE Advisor in Food Safety and Organic Production

Position Title:Area CE Advisor in Food Safety and Organic Production

Position Description: The position focuses on improving food safety management in vegetable crop production (pre and post harvesting) with particular emphasis on organic food production.This position will be housed at UCCE Imperial County and provide a multi-county programmatic coverage for Imperial, Riverside and San Diego Counties with a multi-state linkage to Arizona.The educational and professional requirements are MS or PhD in either horticulture, agronomy, soil science, soil-water-plant relations, plant pathology, or closely related discipline. Experience in vegetable production, irrigated agriculture, organic agriculture, microbial analysis, a working knowledge of statistical analysis, and interdisciplinary research is highly desirable.

Justification:

In 2014, Imperial, Sand Diego and Riverside counties had a combined agricultural gross production of more than $5,038,270,883 from a total harvested area of 982,284 acres. Vegetable production in the three counties had a total gross value of $1,217,881,383. The main vegetable crops include: lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, spring mix, onions, and melons. There are more than 500 organic growers producing more than 100 different commodities. While 11% of total organic producers in the state are located in Sand Diego County, organic crop production in Imperial Countyhas grown to more than double in the last four years (from 19,945 acres in 2010 to 46,579 acres in 2014).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that that the outbreak Listeriosis, caused by easting cantaloupe contaminated with the bacterium listeria species in 2011 killed 33 people.Other crops associated with such outbreaks include leafy greens, melons, and tomatoes. This position will result in increasing awareness, responsibility, economic and environmental management of on-farm food safety of produces. TheAdvisorwill align with the main goals of Sustainable Food Production Systems and Water Quality, Quantity and Security of the ANR strategic initiatives. The positionwill be fully supported by vegetable industry in the three counties.

Extension:This position will address specific food safety concerns of farm owners, managers, and other agricultural industry personnel through phone communications, office visits, and by going into the field to look at specific safety issues of farm produces. General concerns of the clientele will be addressed through meetings, workshops and articles. Technical information on appropriate methods of food safety managementwill be provided to owners, operators and managers of commercial farm operations and other agricultural industry staff. The Advisor will identify production problems in individual commercial fields ofgrowers, and other agricultural industry personnel by visiting the fields or by examining samples brought in by the clientele. The Advisor will prepare written information in the form of county newsletters, news releases, and journal articles. Furthermore, the Advisor will hold field meetings, provideeducational presentations, and information throughthe UCCE Imperial County internet web page to disseminate knowledge and informationto all clientele.

Research: The Advisor in cooperation with producers, industry groups and University of California personnel willconductexperiments to improve quality and safety of perishable produce commodities; develop new or enhanced technologies and diagnostics tools that support the vegetable industry; advance the knowledge about emerging food hazards and contaminants; improve risk assessment and risk management methods and techniques in food safety. The advisor will develop an organic vegetable research agenda looking at alternative treatments to chemical fumigations (e.g., soil solarization, biosolarization) with the goal of making these approaches more effective, predictable,flexible and safe for end users. Research results shall be presented at professional meetings and grower workshops, and published in research and trade journals, newsletters, and disseminated through other electronic means (web, blog, social media venues, etc.). Appropriate journal articles for the advisor’s publications could be HortScience, HortTechnology, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Biosystems Engineering, Acta Horticulturae, Scientia Horticulturae, Transactions of ASABE, Advances in Space Research, Biomass and Bioenergy, International Journal of Chemical Engineering, etc.

ANR Network:There are many participation andcollaborative opportunities with local Advisors and campus Specialists. The Advisor will have the charge of identifying the priority issues through field visits and by interacting with clientele; being aware of other factors influencing the local situation; and working with appropriate AES and CE scientists to provide solutions to local issues. Currently, there are no food safety resources for southern California. Because of the geographical distance, UC campus based food safety CE scientists, provide limited assistance with issues in the low desert and surrounding counties.

Network External to ANR:The Advisor will collaborate with local colleagues, community colleges, University of AZ CE Agents and /Yuma Agricultural Center scientists, USDA ARS scientists, INIFAP scientists and UABC scientists, county government and when appropriate, identify any additional networks (e.g., government agencies, policy makers, community groups, etc.) with whom the advisor will be expected to collaborate.

Support: Supporting and collaborating units include CE advisors, CE and AES faculty in Plant Sciences, discipline related departments at UCD and UCR (e.g. Food Science, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Entomology, Plant Pathology, Weed Science), USDA scientists, UC IPM, Agriculture Sustainability Institute, Small Farms Programs, Postharvest Technology Center, and several strong commodity and cross-commodity organized research and/or marketing advisory boards.

Other support:Numerous industry and government competitive grant programs would be accessible to the Advisor. These include California vegetable commodity boards (carrot, celery, garlic/onion, leafy greens, melon, pepper, and tomato) that have self-assessing research programs. The USDA and CDFA have an annual specialty crops research programs. Funding for food safety is available through numerous other funding programs.

Location:The position will be housed at the UCCE Imperial County office and serve Imperial, Riverside, and San Diego Counties. The CE office in Imperial is located at the Desert REC. Desert REC has laboratories and other facilities to conduct applied research and opportunities to collaborate with campus based colleagues on existing and new projects at DREC. This location will enable a new advisor with immediate access opportunities for collaboration

Developed and proposed by:This position was developed by DREC Director and UCCE Imperial County Director, after consultation with members from the UCCE county directors in Riverside and San Diego andthe ANR Food Safety Horticultural Crops Team. External stake holders arethe Imperial County Farm Bureau, Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association, Imperial County Agricultural’ s Commissioner office, University of Baja California and the University of Arizona.