All land that is either purchased or leased by JAS Family Farms shall have been successfully utilized for growing produce without incident of food safety concerns.
A letter of land history either signed by land owner or responsible party with knowledge or management of previous activities shall be filed for each ranch under JAS Family Farms management. Files should be saved by Ranch Name and Year and remain as attachments on this page for a minimum of 2 years.
If the ranches under JAS Family Farms management have been previously used for non-agricultural functions, such as but not limited to toxic waste site, landfill, mining, animal husbandry, soil test must be performed prior to planting of crops to determine if the soil is free of contaminants (heavy metals, residues of persistent organic contaminants, and harmful bacteria).
If there is animal husbandry incorporated into land management activities (ie. Biodynamic practices and certification requirements), at a minimum, the USDA NOP requirements for raw manure must be followed. ex. 90 day harvest interval for crops that edible portion is not grown in contact with ground and 120 day harvest interval for crops that edible portions is grown in contact with the ground.
Risk assessments shall be filled out prior to the growing season for each ranch and copies uploaded to this page. The risk assessment shall address the physical, chemical, biological risks of past and adjacent land use, soil amendments, flooding, water sources, workers, and any other applicable areas. Files names should be saved by Ranch_Year_RiskAssessment.
Adjacent lands refers to all parcels on land within a certain distance where the crop in question may be affected.
When applicable, appropriate prevention measures shall be implemented between adjacent land and crop production areas to minimize contamination from adjacent land use. Such measures could include but aren't limited to fences, digging drainage trenches, buffer areas of minimum 30 feet, vegetative strips, wind breaks, or berms.
This facility is used to sort and pack summer squash for roughly a 6 month window from April - October each year.
The City of Watsonville performs an annual Backflow Prevention Assembly Test and the results of that test are left with PMC Cooling facility records.