Food Protection Trends - November/December 2021 - 545

Recommendations for extension educators
Extension educators have a firm understanding of farmers'
barriers to implementing food safety practices because
they work closely with farmers (22). They help to fill the
knowledge gap between farmers and complex regulations.
In Pires et al.'s study (27), the extension agency was the
preferred source of information among certified organic
farmers. In the present study, 39% of participants received
advice from the county extension agencies, and half of
them consulted on topics related to law and regulations. Of
those who did not seek advice (61%), most (37%) claimed
that they were unfamiliar with the extension system, which
limited their access to farming-related resources. Poor
connection between the veteran farmers and the extension
system suggests a need for educators to promote extension
programs to reach a broader audience.
Most participants expected food safety educators to
provide on-farm visits (51%) and offer more video-based
extension presentations (46%). Previous studies showed that
farmers preferred to learn from bite-size videos that focus
only on one topic in every video (29, 33). Videos can be
used to visualize and simplify the information, which helps
to enhance veteran farmers' understanding of complicated
on-farm food safety topics.
Limitations
Veteran farmers are a niche audience group for food safety
education. Obtaining a large sample size has been a challenge.
Survey participants were only recruited online via an email
list and social media post. Veteran farmers who had limited
access to the internet might not be exposed to the survey.
In addition, this study surveyed military veteran farmers
in Indiana. Because of the geographical limitation, the
findings of this study may not be generalizable to the larger
population of veteran farmers nationally. Future studies
can consider collecting data from military veteran farmers
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nationwide and recruiting participants using a combination
of online and offline (e.g., mailing or in-person veteran
farmer events) approaches to minimize bias.
CONCLUSIONS
This study assessed Indiana military veteran farmers'
food safety attitudes, knowledge, and practices and
identified future food safety educational programming
needs for this niche audience group. The results showed
that military veteran farmers were aware of the importance
of food safety; however, their food safety knowledge and
practices were limited. Food safety regulation navigation,
including exemptions and covered products, should be
emphasized in future education programs. Two major
barriers perceived by veteran farmers to receiving food
safety education were limited time and an overwhelming
amount of information. Electronic newsletters and inperson
workshops were the preferred food safety education
formats. For in-person events, veteran farmers preferred to
attend one-on-one mentoring sessions or meet with small
groups of veteran farmers. These findings provide guidance
for the development of future audience-targeted food safety
education programs for military veteran farmers and other
small-scale niche farmer groups.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Cindy Chastain, Edward Sheldon, and Sara
Creech from the Farmer Veteran Coalition Chapter of
Indiana for recruiting participants and organizing the
monthly learning circles and in-person workshops. This
project was supported by U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture 201870020-28851,
Hatch S1077-1016049 and 2020-7002033029,
USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Local Food
Promotion Program AM180100XXXXG124, and Indiana
State Department ofAgriculture A337-19-SCBG-18-006.
November/December Food Protection Trends 545
https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-11-18/index.html http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-11-18/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-11-18/index.html
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