UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Faculty members in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have launched a new project to help agricultural producers tackle the challenges of microgreens production.
This initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture through its Northeast Extension Risk Management Education Center, will provide essential education to help established and aspiring microgreens producers strengthen and diversify their businesses.
Microgreens are fast-growing crops, popular for their year-round availability and high demand in premium markets. However, producers face challenges such as maintaining quality, ensuring food safety, managing disease, financing and finding reliable markets.
“Microgreens production offers an exciting opportunity for producers to diversify their operations and meet growing market demands,” said Francesco Di Gioia, associate professor of vegetable crop science and project co-director. “Through this project, we aim to provide producers with essential risk management strategies to enable them to thrive in this competitive sector.”
The project will feature a series of monthly webinars focused on production issues, marketing and business planning, food safety, and legal issues. The organizers also plan two local workshops for hands-on training.
“Our project is unique in that we not only provide education on production issues, but we also include business planning and marketing and address potential legal issues,” said Claudia Schmidt, assistant professor of agricultural economics and project co-director.
Other project members include Kathy Kelley, professor of horticultural marketing and management; Brook Duer, staff attorney at Penn State Law; and Jeff Stoltzfus, Leah Fronk and Robin Perry-Smith, Penn State Extension educators.
The educational series will start at noon Oct. 24 with the kickoff webinar, “Microgreens: Commercial and Nutritional Value Explored." This session will focus on defining microgreen and nutritional quality aspects and cover the opportunities and risks associated with making nutritional claims.
The webinar is offered free of charge, but preregistration by 11:45 p.m. Oct. 23 is required to receive the link to access the webinar. Registrants also will receive a link to the recorded webinar, which will be accessible for six months from the event date. For more information or to register, visit the Penn State Extension website.
Questions about the project can be directed to Schmidt at cschmidt@psu.edu.