Flint River Fresh

The goal of this project is to increase the success rate of urban farmers in Southwest Georgia by offering education on useful and scale-appropriate technology that reduces energy and resource costs in their operations. As such, Flint River Fresh will provide no fewer than 80 new and beginning urban farmers in Albany, Georgia with demonstrations of effective and affordable small-scale farming and post-harvest handling technology to improve water use, soil health, and post-harvest water efficiency on their operations and to assist them in overcoming the high capital costs of installing production and post-harvest infrastructure. Of these, 40 producers will receive direct training about food safety requirements under FSMA and learn simple steps to conserve water and prevent biological contamination of raw produce from pre- and post-harvest surface water applications. It is expected that no fewer than 50 percent of workshop trainees will be socially disadvantaged or limited-resource producers. An estimated 3000 producers interested in small-scale production will observe demonstrations of urban farming and post-harvest technology at the small-scale farming exhibit at the 2019 Sunbelt Ag Expo.