Urban Farms, Food Safety, and Food System Resilience During COVID-19

As our world grapples with the containment of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), essential services including food provisioning remain vital to the health and well-being of our communities. Yet, many small farms are struggling as they face rapid decline in sales as restaurants, schools and other farm-to-institutions programs close. Many urban farms and community gardens who share the mission of providing fresh, health and affordable food to some of our most vulnerable community members are trying to decide whether and how their operations can stay open, as Shelter-in-Place orders mandate social distancing in many of our counties.

The good news is that many Shelter-in-Place Orders list farms, farm stands and farmers' markets as “essential businesses” and are therefore exempt from the Shelter-in-Place orders. However, there are some key guidelines from the CDC regarding social distancing, heightened health and hygiene practices and cleaning and disinfecting procedures that can help minimize exposure and risk of spreading of the virus. The other good news is that there is no evidence to date of Coronavirus spreading through food and food packaging. The virus is thought to be spread mainly from person to person, however there is evidence that it can last for days on surfaces, thus the need to ramp up good health and hygiene practices, social distancing and cleaning & sanitizing of surfaces.

University of California research and extension faculty have compiled a list of valuable fact sheets and resources for farmers, community gardeners and other food system actors on the UC Davis Food Safety website to ensure that we can continue supplying fresh, healthy and affordable food to communities across our state. The following PowerPoint presentation, created for urban farmers in the San Francisco East Bay area, on Safe Handling Practices for Fresh Produce in a Time of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) provides what is known about COVID-19 and outlines best practices for safe food handling at the farm as well as links to a number of useful resources from the CDC, CDFA and others. A set of policies and procedures for safe food handling at the farm during COVID-19 provides step by step instructions for how to implement new food and health precautions on the farm including checklists, standard operating procedures and signage posting guidelines for preventing the spread of infection. Handouts for safe food handling at home can be distributed to customers receiving food from the farm.

During this challenging time, I am heartened by the quick and thoughtful responses by many extension, grassroots and institutional efforts, including Community Alliance with Family Farm's COVID-19 Responses and Resources for California Family Farms, Mutual Aid organizations where groups of young, healthy, and lower-risk people are bringing food and services to those who shouldn't be in public at all, and Rooting in Resilience that seeks to support local restaurants, farmers, and food systems workers as they weather this latest storm. Crisis can spawn innovation, and I am hopeful that through this, we will come out the other end with a more compassionate and resilient food system.

Jennifer Sowerwine is the UCANR/UCB Extension Specialist in Metropolitan Agriculture and Food Systems.

Urban Farm Produce