Regional Agricultural Awareness Workshops

Emergency Response Planning Workbook for Fruit and Vegetable Growers

In recent years, there has been growing interest in locally produced fresh fruits, vegetables, and other food products. Farmers’ markets have become a common feature of local efforts to encourage community economic development by promoting locally-grown products. Consumers have increased their intake of fresh fruits and vegetables thanks to efforts to promote good nutrition. Given the choice, many consumers prefer locally-grown products, and are often very willing to support efforts to bring fresh and wholesome products into their communities via the hard work of local growers.

But, for several reasons, people producing fruits and vegetables face a variety of risks and hazards. This includes natural disasters (floods, tornadoes, etc.); unintentional events such as injuries, fires, etc.; and the potential for intentional events such as theft, vandalism, product tampering, etc. Many of these events can lead to conditions which are potentially damaging to the grower such as a power outage or other “failure” that can affect people, products, property, and customers.

This workbook and the presentations it supports are designed to help fruit and vegetable growers to prepare for and respond to many of these events. (Click on the picture to get to the workbook)

Minority & Immigrant Farmer Conference -- March 7 & 8, 2008

The “Minority & Immigrant Farming Conference” will help small, beginning minority and immigrant farmers learn how to apply for a farm equipment loan; meet landowners willing to lease or rent land; sell food safely; and calculate farming costs. The conference will include interpreters and presenters whose goal is to assist minority and immigrant farmers who are already selling to a farmers’ market or are considering it. Participants will also tour two vegetable growing operations that use a variety of planting and harvesting equipment.

The “Minority & Immigrant Farming Conference” will be held Friday and Saturday, March 7 and 8, 2008, from 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at Como Lakeside Pavilion in St. Paul, concluding with the bus tour to two vegetable farms. To register, call the Minnesota Food Association at 651-433-3676.

More information about the conference and registration can be found in the brochure (Hmong, Spanish, and English). Translators will be available.

Venem, Shutske, and Gilbert win Award!

Mike Venem, John Shutske, and Bill Gilbert received an American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ASABE) Superior Paper award, given in recognition of authorship of a contribution to agricultural engineering literature of exceptional merit. Their article, "Testing and Creation of a Safety System to Disengage the PTO of a Tractor," was published in Applied Engineering in Agriculture, Vol 22, No. 1, 5-12, (2006).

(pictured l. to r: ASABE President, Shutske, Gilbert, & Venem)

Abstract: Production agriculture consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous U.S. industries. As a result, significant research has been devoted to reducing the number of agricultural injuries and deaths. This study involved the design and testing of a safety sensor system using off-the-shelf security sensors to detect people in the power take-off (PTO) hazard area between a self-unloading forage wagon and a tractor. A total of 288 tests with four different sensor technologies explored the reliability of human presence security sensors for operator detection. Test data were statistically analyzed to determine how the sensor technology, approach angle, and mounting height affected the distance of a person from the hazard at the time of detection. After sensor tests were completed, a working prototype shut-off system was created to disengage the PTO of a tractor if a person entered the PTO hazard area, causing the PTO to stop rotating. The shut-off system also sounded an audible alarm and initiated flashing of a strobe light after detection, signaling that a person had entered into the PTO hazard area.

Earlier project research here.

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