Recommendations to Regulations: Managing Wildlife and Produce Safety on the Farm

Wall, Gretchen; Bihn, Elizabeth A.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24442-6_10

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…Currently, food safety and conservation can represent conflicting aims for growers (7,(28)(29)(30). However, there is limited information on tradeoffs and synergies between conservation and on-farm food safety aims that growers can use to guide management decisions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural equation models suggest that on-farm non-crop vegetation removal is not associated with improved food safety outcomes but is linked to impaired water quality

Weller

Love

Weller

et al. 2022

Preprint

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While growers have reported pressures to minimize wildlife intrusion into produce fields through non-crop vegetation (NCV) removal, NCV provides key ecosystem services. To model food safety and environmental tradeoffs associated with NCV removal, published and publicly available food safety and water quality data from the Northeastern USA were obtained. Because data on NCV removal are not widely available, forest-wetland cover was used as a proxy, consistent with previous studies. Structural equation models (SEMs) were used to quantify the effect of forest-wetland cover on (i) food safety outcomes (e.g., detecting pathogens in soil) and (ii) water quality (e.g., nutrient levels). Based on the SEMs, NCV was not associated with or had a protective effect on food safety outcomes (more NCV was associated with a reduced likelihood of pathogen detection). The probabilities of detecting Listeria spp. in soil (Effect Estimate [EE]=-0.17; P=0.005) and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli in stream samples (EE=-0.27; P<0.001) were negatively associated with the amount of NCV surrounding the sampling site. Higher amounts of NCV were also associated with lower nutrient, salinity, and sediment levels and higher dissolved oxygen levels. Total phosphorous levels were negatively associated with the amount of NCV in the upstream watershed (EE=-0.27; P<0.001). Similar negative associations (P<0.05) were observed for other physicochemical parameters, such as nitrate (EE=-0.38). Our findings suggest that NCV should not be considered an inherent produce safety risk or result in farm audit demerits. This study also provides a framework for evaluating environmental trade-offs associated with using specific preharvest food safety strategies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural equation models suggest that on-farm non-crop vegetation removal is not associated with improved food safety outcomes but is linked to impaired water quality

Weller

Love

Weller

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Structural Equation Models Suggest That On-Farm Noncrop Vegetation Removal Is Not Associated with Improved Food Safety Outcomes but Is Linked to Impaired Water Quality

Weller

Love

Weller

et al. 2022

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Currently, on-farm food safety decisions are typically made independently of conservation considerations, often with detrimental impacts on agroecosystems. Comanaging agricultural environments to simultaneously meet conservation and food safety aims is complicated because farms are closely linked to surrounding environments, and management decisions can have unexpected environmental, economic, and food safety consequences.

show abstract

Recommendations to Regulations: Managing Wildlife and Produce Safety on the Farm

Cited by 2 publications

References 20 publications

Structural equation models suggest that on-farm non-crop vegetation removal is not associated with improved food safety outcomes but is linked to impaired water quality

Structural equation models suggest that on-farm non-crop vegetation removal is not associated with improved food safety outcomes but is linked to impaired water quality

Structural Equation Models Suggest That On-Farm Noncrop Vegetation Removal Is Not Associated with Improved Food Safety Outcomes but Is Linked to Impaired Water Quality

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