What Your Employees Don’t Know Will Hurt Your Business

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Mary Peabody

057This time of year many farmers and growers begin prepping for the market season. Before long, customers will be lining up at local farm stands and farmers’ markets ready to buy. Before the cash changes hands, however, many customers are hungry for information.

Getting the seeds started, the labels printed and the displays designed is part of the excitement of direct marketing. But don’t forget the most important investment you can make toward a successful season is a comprehensive training for your employees.

Training the staff who do your selling is critical to developing customer loyalty, increasing the average sale per customer and generating the kind of ‘buzz’ that keeps customers flocking to your stand. So, what should you include in your training sessions?comprehensive training for your employees. Continue reading →

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Basic Best Practices for Food Safety in Value-Added Foods

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Londa Nwadike

Every Vermont food producer that I have talked to wants to produce the safest food possible for their customers and consumers, which is great!  In my previous WAGN blog, and in a recent blog with the Vermont New Farmer Project, I talked about FDA’s proposed rules for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).  As mentioned in those posts, not all cut producefood producers and processors will be (or currently are) legally required to follow particular regulatory requirements due to their size of operation or the type of products they produce. However, all value-added producers can and should utilize some basic Good Manufacturing Practices, or GMPs, which are basic best practices for food safety.  GMPs are also essential to meeting FDA and USDA food safety requirements, and are a key pre-requisite for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points – or HACCP – programs, which are required for certain food products and by some food buyers.

The key Good Manufacturing Practices and associated programs processors should have in place include the following:

Continue reading →

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Farm Safety Camp for Young Women and Their Female Farming Mentors

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Kristen C. Mullins

You heard it here first!

The Youth Farm Safety Project and the Women’s Agricultural Network are collaborating on an overnight safety camp for young women (14-19) and their female farming mentors.

We’ll be gathering at Spring Brook Farm in Reading, Vermont the first weekend in May for two days of hands-on workshops taught by farmers and safety professionals.

Livestock Safety

Workshops will include tractor and machinery safety, livestock safety, farm first aid, farm fire safety, woodlot safety, working safely outdoors, ergonomics, self-defense, and a movie to boot!

Daughters and mothers, aunts and nieces, employees and employers, neighbors and friends -come join us in building safe skills and safe habits across generations.   Continue reading →

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