Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County hosting several opportunities for local farm businesses to learn more about business safety plans needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York state requires businesses to have a specific business safety plan in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mandate includes all farms, both food and non-food producing. In addition, a well-written and executed business safety plan will help reduce business liability risk during and after the pandemic. A Cornell University task force recently developed materials to directly support farms in the plan writing process.

Cornell Cooperative Extension and Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development are offering a “NY Forward Business Safety Plan Support” webinar series with specialized webinars for dairy/livestock/crop farms, fruit/vegetable farms, retail farms, equine farms and greenhouse/landscaping/ornamental farms.

The webinars, led by extension specialists, will walk farmers through the need for and process to complete a safety plan as is required by all businesses for compliance with NY Forward, demonstrate project tools developed by Cornell Cooperative Extension to write and complete a plan and share curated resources for specific industries.

Webinars will be held from noon to 1 p.m. today for fruit and vegetable farms, 7 to 8 p.m. today for retail farms, 7 to 8 p.m. June 15 for greenhouses, landscaping and ornamental farms, and 7 to 9 p.m. June 17 for equine farms.

The webinars are free and pre-registration is required. More information is available at agworkforce.cals.cornell.edu/ny-forward-business-safety-plan or call Lisa Kempisty, dairy/livestock educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County, at 664-9502, ext 203.