Food Protection Trends - November/December 2021 - 535

costs, lack of labor, lack of time, and extensive documentation
processes and audits (4, 15, 22). Because many retailers and
foodservice buyers require farmers to provide certification
confirming their adoption of on-farm food safety practices
(4, 37), small-scale farmers are particularly struggling to both
make a profit and meet these regulatory requirements (6, 11).
Moreover, to increase profits, farmers have been involved
in producing value-added food products (2, 12). Those
further processing activities trigger additional regulatory
requirements for operations that prepare foods for human
consumption. To reduce the compliance-cost burdens for
small-scale farmers or producers (such as licensing and
inspections), the cottage food law was passed in Indiana.
Similar to those in many other states, this law exempts those
who produce low-risk food products in home kitchens and
sell their products at farmers' markets or roadside stands
from the additional regulatory requirements. However, these
producers must still meet certain requirements, such as
labeling and packaging requirements. Limited studies have
investigated farmers' understanding of the cottage food law.
More than 7,000 farms are operated by military veterans
in Indiana. Most of these are small-scale farms with less
than 180 acres and, approximately 75% of the farms have
agriculture product sales of less than $50,000 (41). Military
veterans may experience physical or psychological trauma
after returning from deployment. Farming has been reported
to both improve veterans' mental health and provide
opportunities for veterans to adjust to civilian life (34, 44).
The number of education programs for veteran farmers has
grown since 2007 (10); these programs help to address
veteran farmers' needs regarding farming techniques,
regulations, and sustainability. However, none of the
programs focused on food safety, and the effectiveness of
those programs has rarely been evaluated.
Proper food safety education can strengthen farmers' food
safety knowledge and enhance the implementation of food
safety practices. Various education intervention formats have
been evaluated among farmers, including in-person workshops
(23, 38) and videos (20). However, few studies investigated
veteran farmers' unique preferences on food safety education.
Therefore, the objectives of this study were to assess veteran
farmers' food safety attitudes, knowledge, and practices and to
identify their barriers to and needs in food safety education.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Needs assessment survey development and distribution
A needs assessment survey was developed to evaluate
military veteran farmers' food safety attitudes, knowledge,
and practices and to identify their needs for future food
safety education. The survey included knowledge questions
regarding Indiana cottage food law adapted from online
quizzes from the North Central Region Center (24);
knowledge questions developed by the authors based on
the FSMA produce safety rule (PSR) (43) and poultry- and
egg-handling food safety guidelines; on-farm food safety
practice questions adapted from a previous study (1); food
safety attitude questions; future food safety education
needs questions; and military background questions. The
developed survey questions were reviewed by two food
safety experts for content validity. Four veteran farmers
were recruited via the Farmer Veteran Coalition Chapter of
Indiana (FVC-I) email list to participate in a 2h focus group
to pilot test the survey at the Marion County Extension
Office in Indianapolis. The focus group was audio-recorded
with the permission of participants. The survey was refined
based on the feedback of the focus group participants. The
final needs assessment survey contained 89 questions that
took an average of 15 min to complete.
Two rounds of survey data were collected using Qualtrics
(Provo, UT). The first round of survey data was collected
between January and March 2019, and the second round of
survey data was collected between February to April 2021. A
recruitment flyer was distributed to Indiana veteran farmers
via the FVC-I email list and was posted on FVC-I's social
media account. Only Indiana military veteran farmers who
were 18 years and older were included in this study. The
data of second-round survey participants who completed
the survey in 2019 were excluded from further data analysis.
This research protocol (1810021180) was approved by the
Institutional Review Board at Purdue University.
Data analysis
Web-based survey data were exported from Qualtrics and
was imported into IBM SPSS Statistics (version 26, SPSS
Inc., Chicago, IL) for further data analysis. A related-samples
Wilcoxon-signed rank test was used to determine whether
the differences in attitude toward different food safety
statements were statistically significant and whether the
differences in the comfort level for veteran farmers to attend
various events were statistically significant. The statistical
difference was determined at the statistical level of 0.05.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Demographic characteristics
Seventy-eight Indiana military veteran farmers completed
the Web-based needs assessment survey. Table 1 presents
participants' demographic characteristics and farming
backgrounds. Most survey participants were male (82%),
married (72%), aged 39 and above (71%), and Caucasian
(82%), with a bachelor's degree and above (60%). Because
of the difficulties of recruiting survey participants, the
distribution of age and product grown by the participants
did not mirror data from the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture
(41), which reported more than 30% Indiana veteran farmers
were older than 74 years old and 80% grew oilseed, grain,
hay, and beef cattle, whereas in the present study, only 3% of
participants were older than 74 years old and they primarily
grew vegetables, fruits, eggs, and poultry.
November/December Food Protection Trends 535
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