Once the sun comes up, farmers have a lot to do. There is livestock to look after, crops to monitor and equipment to tend to. With so much going on, however, there is another issue at hand that is creating more work around the farm—regulatory compliance.
Part of the planned Food Safety Modernization Act requires produce manufacturers to store data to verify that food products were grown in an envrironment free of certain conditions, such as livestock runoff and other field tests. In order to protect the consumer, companies have to accurately record data and report back to the food companies and copackers. These are serious tests that, if compromised or lost, could put a farm in serious jeopardy of losing financial assistance. If offenses are repeated, a farm could be shut down for lack of conformance.
With the power of automated data input, however, the burden of regulatory insight can be lessened. Manufacturing intelligence can provide the insight necessary to build loyal customers who know they can trust the source of their produce. Therefore, when it comes time for an audit, data does not have to be tracked down and located. While paper can get damaged or lost, information that is entered into a database has a historic record, has security and is readily available for reporting and audits.
Paper-based systems have long been used to record this amount of data, but there are many downsides. Paper is expensive and hard to manage. A smartphone or tablet avoids the complications associated with paper storage and provides a system of checks and balances that ensure responsible data entry across every level of the supply chain.
When the auditors come looking for production information from your company, there should be no reason to have to scramble to in preparation. Manufacturing intelligence is readily accessible in a remote database, meaning farmers and consumers can rest assured knowing that the information is there to back up day to day business practices.