The Mobile Farm Innovation Project is a program that incorporates hands-on activities and modern technology to increase farm viability with food safety and conservation practices.

Targeting primarily fruit and vegetable producers, the project’s educational trailers reach hundreds of socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers, helping them improve their bottom lines.

Food safety works within a whole farm system. This project takes a holistic view that focuses on farm financial sustainability. This project shows profitable and practical ways to improve conservation practices on the farm while lowering financial and food safety risks.

Mobile Activities

Traveling though Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, each trailer features interactive activities and demonstrations. Topics cover food safety, conservation, and computer literacy. During a Farm Innovation event, farmers learn how to

• construct a simple on-farm cooler for produce
• construct a simple on-farm handwashing sink with a touch free faucet design
• clean food contact surfaces effectively
• mix and manage sanitizer solutions
• create a Google Map of the farm
• prevent soil erosion and protect water quality through the implementation of vegetative buffers

Farmers will also receive information about accessing USDA programs that will help pay for the implementation of conservation practices.

Resources

The following resources are a part of the Mobile Farm Innovation Project’s educational outreach efforts:

Factsheets

• Water Sampling
• Rotational Grazing
• Field Mapping
• Cover Crops & Vegetative Buffers
• Cleaning & Sanitizing
• Cold Storage
• Building On-Farm Cold Storage Using a Coolbot^TM
• Building a Handwashing Station
• Sanitizing

Online Booklet

Farm Innovation Project Booklet

Impacts

• Food Safety at the Swamp
• Farm Innovation Project Stakeholder Report (January 2022)

Partners

The Mobile Farm Innovation Project is a USDA funded partnership led by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System at Auburn University and a number of partners.

• Deep South Food Alliance
• Alabama A&M University Small Farms Research Center
• Fort Valley State University Extension
• Mississippi State University Extension

This work is supported by Food Safety Outreach Program [grant no. 2019-70020-30349] from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.