Smart Food Policy for Small Scale Farmers: Understanding the Critical Factors of Food Traceability

以当地生产者为重点的食品安全和采购政策可以防止食源性疾病暴发，是健康食品环境的重要组成部分。食品安全政策，如纽约(NY)食品标准，要求一定的可追溯性，这意味着披露整个供应链中产品的原产地、地点和生命历史的信息和过程。然而，参与可追溯性网络基础设施的成本可能会使小农场实施食品安全政策的经济效益化为乌有。数据和技术要求以及能力有可能使那些收集、记录和共享数据的能力、时间和资源有限的小农场边缘化。奥尔巴尼大学政府技术中心与加里·克雷佩尔教授和奥尔巴尼大学生物系的克雷佩尔农业生态和可持续食品生产实验室合作，建议建立初步的数据和技术架构，以支持开发适合小农场数据能力的全链可追溯系统所需的网络基础设施。本研究的重点是设计适合小型农场能力的数据和技术架构。数据收集将包括对纽约S首都区选定的小农户和政府官员以及将作为机构买家的UAlbany的代表进行的一系列深入采访。研究小组将对访谈数据进行定性分析，以确定为小型农场设计适当的技术和数据架构所需的关键因素。此外，结果还将用于记录实现从小型农场到机构买家的全链条可追溯性所需的政策、组织、治理和技术组件。

Food safety and procurement policies that focus on local producers can prevent foodborne illness outbreaks and are an important component of a healthy food environment. Food safety policies such as the New York (NY) Food Metric require some traceability, meaning the revealing of information and processes of the origin, location, and life history of a product across the supply-chain. However, the costs of participating in a traceability cyber infrastructure could potentially nullify the economic benefits of food safety policy implementation for small farms. Data and technology requirements and capabilities have the potential to marginalize small farms who have restricted capability, time, and resources to collect, record, and share data. In partnership with Professor Gary Kleppel and the Kleppel Lab for Agricultural Ecology and Sustainable Food Production in the Department of Biology at the University at Albany (UAlbany), the Center for Technology in Government, UAlbany proposes to build preliminary data and technology architectures to support the development of the necessary cyber-infrastructure for a whole-chain traceability system that fits with the data capabilities of small farms. The focus of this research is to design data and technology architectures that fit with the capabilities of small farms. Data collection will include a series of in-depth interviews with selected small farmers and government officials in NY?s Capital District and representatives of UAlbany, which will serve as the institutional buyer. The research team will use qualitative analysis of the interview data to identify the critical factors needed to design appropriate technology and data architectures for small farms. In addition, the results will be used to document the policy, organizational, governance, and technical components needed to enable whole-chain traceability from small farms to institutional buyers.