Learning

Starting an indoor farm can be quite a challenge as all technical aspects have to be perfectly aligned with each other. If you think you know everything about a certain type of crop that is grown in a greenhouse, there is a lot more to learn and achieve when growing that crop indoors. For this particular…

Food fraud has been estimated to cost our industry over $50 billion per year. Performing a comprehensive fraud vulnerability assessment is now a key requirement of all GFSI standards. Do you know which of your ingredients are the most susceptible to intentional adulteration?

Hazard Question #3 – Which food commodity category has had the most fraud incident reports over the past 20 years?

Hint: If you have access to HorizonScan it takes less than 10 seconds to select a commodity, click the fraud filter and be viewing up to 20 years of food fraud reports. HorizonScan is widely recognized by GFSI auditors as an excellent foundation for performing thorough and compliant vulnerability assessments.

The Produce Marketing Association has announced its new certificate course, The Essentials of Produce at Retail.#produce #retail #training #USA @pma @CGTbyPMA producereport.com/article/press-…

This week’s question deals with pepper. Did you know that for centuries pepper has been considered the “King of Spices?” It was one of the very first items of commerce between India and Europe. It was so valuable that entire expeditions were made in hopes of transporting more back to Europe as quickly as possible.

Hazard Question #2 – Which country of origin has been cited by global inspection agencies the most times in the past year for adulteration issues in pepper?

Hint: With HorizonScan you could find the answer to today’s quiz in less than ten seconds by doing a search on “pepper – black, pink or white” and then selecting the one-year country of origin bar chart on the results page.

Food risks for a particular ingredient can vary greatly from country to country. HorizonScan can show you the most likely risks to your products based on where each of its ingredients are sourced. To request updated pricing information or a free demo fill out this contact form.

Produce Marketing Association (PMA) and Center for Growing Talent (CGT) are expanding their virtual learning opportunities. FreshEd Academy is a growing portfolio of on-demand, online courses providing industry specific education and training designed by subject matter experts. Launched in 2019 with…

Greenhouse production of hydroponic tomatoes is increasing worldwide every year. The reason? All the advantages provided by these growing systems! The principal advantages of hydroponic controlled environment agriculture (CEA) include high-density maximum crop yield, year-round production, more efficient use of water and fertilizers, consistent crop quality, minimal use of land area, and suitability for mechanization, […]

The University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Landscape and Greenhouse Team is hosting a Plant Production lunch and learn webinar series. The webinar registration has unlimited attendance and it's possible to select multiple sessions.  "You can attend as many or as few as you like. Register and select…

The correct tutoring of plants in greenhouses is synonymous with efficiency, optimal management, yields and helps save time and labor. The latter is something that all agricultural entrepreneurs have introduced to their business processes. Not everyone, though, has had the chance to experiment the…

“Over the last 5-7 years, universities’ interest in greenhouse and hydroponic training has exploded. Getting involved with the education community has been great; it used to be only a specific group that liked hydroponics, but now everyone seems to,” says Paul Brentlinger, chief executive officer of…

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

With that idea in mind, GR365N (pronounced Green 365) was created. The social enterprise aims to teach individuals how to grow fresh food in hydroponic systems allowing them to access fresh food 365 days a year with minimal growing costs.

With COVID affecting food production, team members Dan Atkinson and Colin McVicker believe hydroponic farming this isn’t the future of food production, rather, it is the present. 

The way the system works is simple. Seedlings are placed in vertical posts that contain plastic substrate. The main water tank pumps water through the entire system and trickles down into the posts leading the plants to grow out horizontally on vertical posts using LED lights, no soil and 95 per cent less water than farms. 

#FreshEd: a turnkey certificate program for the produce industry. The 1st online course in this program, Essentials of Produce Safety, is designed to help you manage #producesafety risks & equip you with the latest best practices. #FoodSafetyEducationMonth academy.alchemysystems.com/product/essent… pic.twitter.com/w0Kb9Vg89t

The COVID pandemic has led us to seek a closer relationship with food.  Increasingly, we want to know where our food comes from and maybe even grow a little of it ourselves.  But, how do we do that when most of us live in smaller spaces in cities and have no farming knowledge?  Contain, Inc and ID Capital today announced…

The governments of Canada and Manitoba will be providing support to Agriculture in the Classroom – Manitoba (AITC-M) to adjust their educational and outreach resources in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development Minister Blaine Pedersen announced today.

Ball’s Food Stores announced the certification of 100 employees by the American National Standards Institute and the Conference for Food Protection.  Ball’s Foods employees participated in an intensive, seven-hour training course focused on proper food handling, food preparation and food storage along with food safety and sanitation standards that are required by the FDA and USDA through the Food Safety Modernization Act.

After passing the certification test, department managers, store managers and senior leadership earned accreditation and a certificate from the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals. "The company is committed to ensuring all guests receive the best possible shopping experience in the safest environment," Gregg Frost, vice president of human resources for Ball’s Food. "Every Balls Price Chopper, Hen House Market, Balls Sun Fresh Market and Payless Discount Foods have at least one manager on duty during all hours of operation who are a Certified Food Protection Manager.”

Kansas City based Ball’s Food Stores operates 26 supermarkets under the Hen House Market, Price Chopper, Sun Fresh and Payless Discount Foods banners in Kansas City and surrounding markets.

A Victorian vegetable farm is reaping the benefits from a trial of precision agriculture technologies to improve soil and crop health. In this edition, the Soil Wealth ICP team delve into some of the key findings from the project’s demonstration site at Koo Wee Rup. Soil Wealth ICP Phase 2 (VG16078) is a…

Operators know how expensive it can be to install a suitable tutor system in greenhouses: there are strings and ties everywhere and it takes a long time.  Alessandro Avarino, administrator of SIA Sia Sicilia Group Srl, the company that patented the effective greenhouse tutor system  And what about the time needed…

Fertilizer forms a basic step to farming. Most of the people do home farming without proper knowledge of pesticides. Major nutrients include Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. There are 2 types of fertilizers namely organic and synthetic. One can always go for the 5-5-5 fertilizer, that will give the necessary supplements to all the plants for sound development.

Potato, native to South America is now grown worldwide. Potato is a member of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. It is the most important food crop in the world.

Environmental challenges, technological advances and changing consumer demand have increased demand for controlled environment agriculture solutions. Agri-TechE is hosting CEA Lite to keep the conversation going around the technologies and opportunities in this vibrant space until everyone can meet again…

High school students in Bartin, Turkey are learning about greenhouse production and high-tech greenhouse production know-how. As a part of the project, the students are learning about hydroponic production in a remote-controlled greenhouse. The students were involved in all parts of the production…

'Handling Fresh Produce Safely' is an e-learning course for vegetable producers wanting to train pickers, packhouse staff and farmworkers in how to handle vegetables in a clean and safe manner to manage the risk of food contamination. The four modules address: Food Safety, Staying Clean, Harvesting and Packing.…

As the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry grows, companies are facing greater shortages in qualified talent. How can innovation in training and education accelerate the industry to the benefit of all? Hosted by the Farm Tech Society and Indoor Ag-Con, LLC,  "The Future of Farming: Educating…

In the first article in a mini-series on irrigation in semi-closed glasshouses Godfrey Dol discussed the right tools required to measure irrigation. In this second part he takes a look at the most important rules in irrigation. 1) A healthy, mature tomato plant uses approximately 1.7 ml/Joule/M2. Light…

The CropKing workshop series has gone virtual. A team of industry experts and experienced growers will teach you the tools you need to get started with hydroponic growing. The live workshop will be held on Wednesday August 18, 2020 at 10:00 AM EST, via Zoom, and participants will receive unlimited access…

Train yourself and your staff to make better crop management decisions by learning in depth aspects of plant nutrition management. Nutrient Management 2 (Advanced) is the third course of the award-winning Greenhouse Online Training courses offered by the University of Florida IFAS Extension. This course…

In an upcoming 30MHz webinar, Aryan Aziezie will bring you up to speed on the Sendot sensor portfolio and the insights their optical sensor technology provides. Sendot has seen some significant results when it comes to capturing O2 and photosynthesis data. Resulting in more efficiency improved production…