CE position in Food Crop Safety
Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Position Description: (1) The position will lead an integrated Extension and Research program that addresses issues related to food safety at any point from pre- to post-harvest food production. Food safety may be addressed from the perspective of microbial or chemical contamination (including mycotoxins), or a combination of the two. (2) The position will be filled by an individual holding a PhD degree in agronomy, horticulture, plant pathology, plant science, microbial ecology, molecular genetics, or a closely related field. (3) Supporting units will include Cooperative Extension personnel from various counties including Riverside, San
Diego and Imperial, statewide programs such as the UC Agricultural Issues Center, the UC IPM program, and the UC Small Farms program, and interaction with the CDFA is also expected.
Relevance to the ANR Strategic Vision: This position is central to the Healthy Californians and Healthy Food Systems priority of the ANR Strategic Vision, by addressing urgent issues in food safety.
Initiatives to be addressed: This position addresses three initiatives within the ANR Strategic
Vision. It addresses the Initiative to Ensure Safe and Secure Food, by improving the control and identification of microbial and chemical contamination of California'a agricultural products.
This includes both "natural" contamination and events due to terrorism. The position also addresses the Initiative to Enhance Competitive, Sustainable Food Systems, by helping
California retain its position as a leader in the production of food for the nation and world.
Extension: These activities will focus on issues in food safety, including identifying contaminants or sources of food spoilage in the food chain, tracing sources of contamination, and reducing contamination. This will include, for example, the implementation of good agricultural practices along with food safety programs in a diversity of production systems. Stakeholders targeted by extension activities include all sources in the food chain, including grower, processors, distributors, etc.
Research : Questions in this area include: How to best detect pathogens? What is the source of contamination? How can water sources suffering from bacterial or other types of contamination be disinfected or otherwise purified? How can solutions be adapted to both conventional (highinput and low-input) and organic growers? Publication outlets for research may include Food
Microbiology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Journal of Food Protection, Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry, California Agriculture, and others.
ANR continuum: While a program exists at UC-Davis (Trevor Suslow, for example), this is inadequate to cover the entire state especially desert agriculture. Interactions with Suslow are expected, along with CE in Riverside County (Jose Aguiar, Carmen Gispert, Tom Shea), Imperial
County (Donna Henderson, Khaled Bali), and elsewhere. In addition, interactions are expected with other faculty in the home department at UC-Riverside, including a faculty member (Jan
Walter) that studies the epidemiology of human pathogens.

Support: The department will provide laboratory, greenhouse, and office space within its facilities on the UC-Riverside campus, as well as administrative support, internet access, telephone access, etc.
Other support: Support is expected from commodity groups, the food processing industry, federal regional projects, and statewide programs including CDFA.
Location: UC-Riverside is centrally situated to support agriculture in two major crop production regions, Riverside County and Imperial County. These produce several billion dollars of food crops per year, including a diverse mixture of vegetables (lettuce, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.), grapes, melons, and subtropical fruits (citrus, dates, avocado, etc.). UC-
Riverside is therefore a logical base of operations for such a position. While an emphasis on
Food Safety in desert crops in these regions is anticipated, growers in other regions (San Joachin
Valley, etc.) are also accessible.