This series was created to shine a spotlight on individuals who play vital roles in the CEA and Indoor Ag industries. These individuals, the "gurus," are the experts and innovators driving the advancements in this technology.

The series is hosted and moderated by Eden Green’s Digital Marketing Manager, Bryson Funk and will be held on a monthly basis.

“We really want to bring attention to the individuals actively working "on the ground" within CEA and Indoor Ag facilities. These individuals could include growers, operations personnel, marketing and sales representatives, and logistics experts. You never know who we will bring on next.”

- Bryson Funk

They will be held on Instagram live which allows for live commenting and questions. Questions are highly encouraged. We want to know what interests YOU.

In Episode 4, we chatted with Food Safety Director, Caitlin Edsall. Caitlin has been working for Eden Green for over 2 years and has rocketed through the company. She started as a Production Assistant and in a few years worked her way up to a Director roll. If you have an interest in Leadership, Food Safety, or Program Building, this is the episode for you.

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Read the episode transcript below

Bryson

Hey, everyone what's going on? Welcome to greenhouse gurus, Episode Four. If you guys are just joining us now, it's gonna be a good one tonight, we've got a Director of Food Safety with us tonight, it's gonna be really interesting conversation about a side of CEA that not a lot of people want to talk about. But also it's super important. The food safety aspects side of everything, so we're going to be catching up with her in a little bit. If this is your first time joining us, this is how it's gonna go. We're going to bring on guests. Tonight. It's food safety director, Caitlin Edsall. We're going to just interview we're going to chat for a little bit. Learn about her background, what was it like growing up? How did she get into the industry? If you guys have any questions at all, please type them in, we will do our best to see them and answer them as soon as we can. But really, it's just going to be a free form conversation with Caitlin, we're going to touch a lot of different aspects of this. The goal of these nights is for you guys to learn something about CEA. There's a lot of myths out there, there's a lot of strong thoughts out there. And these nights are really just for us to kind of dig down deep into all the individuals that make this industry run and learn a little bit about each and every aspect of this. So if you haven't seen any of the other ones, I really recommend, if you got a little bit of time, check them out. They're on our Instagram, we've covered operations. We've talked with a couple growers. And so it's been a pretty all encompassing conversation so far. So I'm excited for tonight. I'm going to go ahead and reach out to Caitlin and see if we can get her on. Give me one second y'all.

There's here's what's going on. Hello. How are you? Thanks for joining us.

Caitlin

Absolutely.

Bryson

So far, we've got a couple of folks on watching. So everybody, this is Caitlin Edsel. This is the food safety director for Eden Green. Yeah, we're really excited for tonight. I'm really excited to chat with you. I let them know that if they have any questions that pop up, we'll do our best to kind of see them and address them as they come through. But yeah, overall, we're just gonna chat and see what it takes. Right. All right, cool. So first of all, let's just start with you. Let's get to know you a little bit. Tell us, first of all, what is a little bit of your background? How did you come into CEA in general? What is your background there?

Caitlin

Yes. So I am from Roanoke, Texas. So not too far from here. Thats where I grew up and went to high school. And then I did a lot of FFA activities in high school. So kind of got my foot in the door with agriculture in general. And then I wanted to keep with that. So I went to A&M and majored in agricultural leadership. So I started focusing on soil and crop sciences more. And then I really kind of found my path with more of like the general ag leadership realm, so I kind of stuck with that. Graduated during COVID. So I did not get a job right out of college. My senior last semester is when COVID hit so everything was crazy. So I just decided to go ahead and get my masters at that time, so I could do it online. I ended up getting my masters and agricultural leadership as well. And life happened I moved to a tiny town called Rio Vista because thats close to Cleburne and yeah, and as soon as I got done with my master's, I was ready to look for a job and so I've literally just googled agriculture jobs near me. And I was just looking for something to get started. And I found Eden green and I had no idea that anything like that was around here in college and in high school, you know, you kind of learn about those really cool places, the indoor farms, you know, things you saw documentaries about and learn about but I had no idea it was in Texas, much less and Cleburne so close to where I grew up and close where I was living so I tracked down Bryson at a career fair and I got started. I started as an entry level position at Eden Green and on the production team, and just kind of moved up from there.

Bryson

So what did you think you're going to go into when you were in high school and then progressing through college? What was the goal? Like, what what did you see yourself doing when you graduated?

Caitlin

So with agriculture, and just the high school I went to was a lot of livestock and traditional farm focus. So that's a lot of what I learned about. And I actually wanted to work for the government. So originally, I wanted to be a soil conservationist, which you're working for the government, and you're working with farmers, and kind of helping them, it's a lot of outreach, basically, and helping them with what they need, helping them improve their methods, conservation, giving back to the land, that sort of thing. And then, whenever I started focusing on the leadership side, in college, then I kind of shifted a little bit to Agrilife Extension services. So that's actually what I did my internship with in college as well. That's the department that's running like your county for each groups, and they also work with the farmers a lot in your county. So there's one of those locations in each of your county and you have agents available to you. They work with the schools, work with the community, work with local agriculture, so that's what I was focusing on. Right outside of college and what I thought I wanted to do. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of great, because with Eden Green, I'm still getting to work with Extension agents. And we get to have them out for tours and stuff with the kids. So it worked out for sure.

Bryson

Thats awesome. And I always find that so interesting as well. That journey. Yeah. career journeys, I always find it so interesting, because I feel like people very rarely end up with where they originally thought they were headed, you know?

Caitlin

Yes. 100%. But somehow, it still works. I feel really lucky that I found a job that's so interesting and flexible. And I'm still getting to work with the community and work with students who sounds like we're still getting that aspect of outreach. But it's a little more focused and hands on which

Bryson

Oh, my gosh, and when you brought up the career fair, oh, my goodness, it was so funny. So for everyone watching, a coworker of mine, and myself went to this career fair. And it was our first time being there. We were all the way in the back of the room. We were not prepared. We didn't have swag, or signs. We literally had our laptops with us, and maybe a piece of paper to sign up on. So unprepared. And I think we ended up seeing, like three or four people. And Caitlin was one of them. And I really remember, because you had already applied online, and then tracked us down and we had a great conversation and ended up bringing you in even though it was definitely an entry level position. I remember that you started in production, right? Yeah. Yeah. So talk us through how you went from an entry level position to now a director in the company, how did that work?

Caitlin

Yeah, that was definitely a journey as well. So started in production, you know, getting my foot in the door, I was definitely happy to just start at that entry level, to get to learn everything. I fully believe that no matter what company or job you're doing, starting at the bottom is the best way you get to learn everything, get your hands on, and you have that experience to back you up. So I was more than happy to jump in on the production team, which were just out there planting, harvesting, keeping things moving. So I was more than happy to jump in at that level. I was in that position for probably about six months, so about like July to December. And at that time, y'all knew that I have like my master's degree, and I was more interested in getting deeper into it. So I ended up helping get some software started, that we were going to work on to help us track our production and track our harvest. And it was a neat software that we were trying to get started. So I was kind of brought in on that project to do a little hands on like a few days a week. And that was my first step into the office. Kind of got to like help move in on that. And it kind of snowballed from there. Then one of our other directors at the time he needed some assistance. So they were like, hey Caitlin's working on the software, and she's kind of in the office more, she can help you too. And that's where things really kind of blew up from there. I was supposed to be working with the Grow team and just kind of helping them out. But it turns out a lot of our departments needed just that extra set of hands, I've kind of started taking on everything that people didn't have time for, or, like needed assistance with which I learned so much. I mean, I was helping with HR, with marketing, the Grow team, and everything. So I loved it, because it was something new every day. And I was just there assisting, and I learned a lot through that. So in that same journey, started taking on our vendors as well. And at the time, we decided to bring in some food safety consultants, and I started working with them. And that was my first taste of food safety, besides the basic training and your interaction you have working with the plants, behind the scenes, the documents, the labs, all of that stuff, like that was my real first step into it. And I kind of just started to fall in love with it. At that point, I had no idea what I was stepping into, and I was supposed to temporarily be a liaison between this food safety consulting company and our company. And it kind of just went from there, they needed a representative for Eden Green. And the deeper I got into it, the more I loved it, and was fascinated by it. So I kind of came to this crossroads at one point that they were like, Okay, you're either gonna go like administrative assistant, or you go food safety, and you pick. And so I took the food safety route, and I haven't looked back.

Bryson

Oh my gosh, what a route to take. That's a deep ocean of rules and regulations and information and very specific things that you have to track. That's quite a jump you took for sure.

Caitlin

It really is. And I'm learning something new every single day. I did not learn about that stuff in college. That's not what any of my degrees are in. So it has all been on the job learning, research training, you know, just just trying to keep up with it.

Bryson

Yeah totally. For anybody who is not familiar with food safety, that's a term a lot of people use. Maybe you heard about it. In a news article, you heard about it on TV, but it's kind of vague. I know, I didn't really know much about it until working for Eden Green, can you give us a brief overview of what all food safety means?

Caitlin

Yeh so So food safety, when most people think about it, it's, you know, just making sure people aren't getting sick from the food we're giving them. And I mean, that is that is the core principle of it, we do not want to get anyone sick with the produce that we are growing. That is the the opposite of our goal here. We want to give food to nourish people and, you know, help people and communities that need it. So that is kind of the core of it. But food safety really branches out further than that. It goes into things like security and food defense. And those kinds of things look like making sure that people aren't coming in and, and purposely, you know, getting people sick for putting things into our system, making sure the integrity of our system is good. Making sure that you know, the security of our site is good, making sure that the ingredients that we're using and for us that's you know, seeds and media, making sure that that is not a fraudulent product. It goes so deep and it really branches out into every single department. So I mean, the core of it is a lot of testing, a lot of making sure that there aren't the bad pathogens, those bad bugs in our in our growing environment or in the food. But it goes a lot further than that. It goes into training and record keeping. And if something does go bad, we send out some kind of poor product and, you know, God forbid someone does get sick, it's making sure that we have all the information we need to quickly trace back to where it started, make sure that the rest of the product we're sending out isn't bad or harmful, and squashing that as quickly as possible. So a lot of it is kind of like covering your butt. But in the best way possible so that if something does happen, you're ready to act, and you're ready to go back and figure out what is causing it. You know, what product got sent out? So it goes deep. It's a lot of traceability, a lot of testing and a lot of training.

Bryson

Yeah, that really it in a nutshell. That's also very surface level. We didn’t really get very deep on this. But Mickey Kay had a question and was wondering if you would just talk a little bit about your work life balance? What is that like as a as a director?

Caitlin

So work life balance, I really work on trying to be better with it, making sure that work gets done during work hours, and home life is home life. And that was definitely a little bit of an adjustment with the director position, because I moved to salary as well. So I went from an hourly position where I'm like, Oh, if I'm not on the clock, you know, they're not talking to me. Now, when your salary, you know, kind of expected that if your boss calls you that you're going to answer and you're going to be available to respond. So that was a little bit of a shift. And I kind of had to make it known upfront that a lot of our directors, they kind of work on hours. And so they like having those hour long conversations in the evening. And I was very straight up the beginning. If there's an emergency, please call me or text me and I will go up to work at whatever hour if something's happening. Otherwise, I don't want to just chat in the evening. Like you said, it's my “at home” time. So I definitely made that known up front and let them know, these are my boundaries on those hours. Unless something is happening. Otherwise, the only time that work life balance is a challenge is leading up to an audit. So once a year, we have our annual food safety audit. It's kind of like the big marker for over a year where we have people coming out, and they're inspecting basically everything I do. They're inspecting everything and giving us the score. And it's super important for next year. So leading up to that I'm doing a ton of prep work. This last year, I worked the two weekends leading up to the audit just because I was up there sweeping, cleaning, and organizing and making sure everything looked perfect. So that was a little bit of a challenge leading up to it. And I was working crazy long hours. But on a regular basis. I'm like very conscious of that and trying to make sure that, you know, I'm only working 40 hours a week unless something has come up. And just making sure that people understand that these are the hours I'm typically working, you know, I might work from home occasionally. But otherwise, these are my boundaries for work.

Bryson

So something that I've always found interesting, and this is why I never really thought of it before working there is that we are enclosed, it is a very clean environment already, especially compared to outdoors, right? There's no soil involved. It's water based. So you know, things can get dirty, but it's a pretty clean environment already. So, that being the case, what are some of the biggest things we have to watch out for in controlled environment? If it's enclosed, and there aren't any birds or anything that come in, what are the things that could really bring the product down?

Caitlin

Yeah, that's a great question. A lot of people like to bring that up, and they're like, hey, most, most of our food is getting grown outdoors in a field. So, you know, what do you really have to do if you're indoors? Like you said, you're not worried about a bird flying over and pooping or a deer coming into our field, stuff like that. Like that's not an issue for us. So our biggest thing that we have to look out for is our employees. So that is the most interesting thing. It's people, it's how we're handling the food. It's what we're bringing in our clothing, you know, like, what did you do that day, what's on the bottom of your shoe that you're bringing in? We're using scissor lifts to do everything. And so our feet are way closer to the product. So it's all about how we're interacting with the food. So that is why things like gloves are super important. Our PPE, we use aprons. So keeping as much of that plant matter off of us as much as like, you know, we're trying to keep our germs off of the plants as well. Hair nets, beard nets, washing our hands regularly, making sure the bottom of our shoes are sanitized. It's kind of crazy, because you don't think of those things in a farming environment at all. Like you don't see farmers in the field with, you know, a hairnet on and to sanitizing mat. They're not a thing. So when you're indoors, it's all about the people. And it's what you're bringing into that environment, and keeping it as enclosed and clean as possible.

Bryson

I think that was one of the parts that I found so interesting, is I never think about my clothing. I have animals, you know, but even out and about, if you're in public, you don't know who sat in the chair before you. You don't know. All the things that are in the air and how that could be brought in. That's such an interesting aspect of it. Something that's kind of unique about Eden Green is that everything is under one roof. So we start from seedlings, we grow them, we transplant them, we harvest them, we pack them, and we ship them out all under the same roof. So there's a lot of different touch points where something could happen. Literally, from the very moment that seed gets put in the media, to the last moment when they get shipped on to Walmart or sent sent out to a truck something could happen. So Caitlin, can you talk about how you interact with the different teams because you have to work with team? You have to work with Pack, with Logistics, with Facilities….you are really a team of one at this point. So how do you do interact with all these different teams and train them on how to be food safe?

Caitlin

Definitely. I am a team of one technically, but most of the time, it does not feel like that. I am working so closely with everyone that sometimes I feel like I'm a team of everyone. So I really don't ever feel like a team of one, even though I technically am. I'm always working with the managers. We do a lot of department trainings to make sure that everyone is getting trained on a regular basis. Those are scheduled and we go over different topics. But more than that, we're really focusing on getting our managers and our leaders more deeply trained in food safety, because I know that's something I would have loved to have when I started. The more you know, the more power and knowledge you have. So we're really pushing that more. Both of our greenhouse managers have gotten multiple certificates this year. And I will say it has been the biggest help. I love surrounding myself with people that are smarter than me. And that is the biggest thing and it's amazing to now have them understand what I'm talking about in the certain terms and topics. It's amazing getting to have these meetings with them, and just bounce ideas off of each other. And so its like I said, it never feels like a team of one because I'm always getting to work with them. But it has taken a lot of learning for me. At the beginning, I kind of tried to step in and train everyone and tell them this is the way you should do things. This is the way you shouldn't. And I quickly learned that that is not helpful if you don't understand why they're doing things. If you don't understand the purpose of it, you know, why are they doing things this way? Why are they using a certain tool? It's easy to say like “don't use that anymore”, “Don't do that anymore”. Whenever you sit down and start talking with them, it changed everything for me. So some of the trainings that I have, I just pick a topic and I'm like y'all tell me about it, tell me how you're interacting with this. So, I've had trainings where I feel like I'm the one getting trained. And that's the biggest insight I can get is just talking to them. And then I'm always asking them what do you need? What will make this easier for you, because I understand it's easy to tell people that what to do. But if you don't understand the challenges, the time it's taking, maybe they don't have the right tools to do it easily, then they're not going to kind of integrate with that and start taking on those tasks. Because it's going against everything that they need to do. And that was one fear I had moving into food safety is everyone kind of looked at it, like, you're the one that's going to come in and get people in trouble. And I never wanted to be that person. So I'm working really hard to make sure that I'm taking the time to understand why people are doing the things they are. And then using that to shift those mindsets. So I think our food safety culture has gotten so much better over the past year just because I started listening to the teams more and understanding. Not just trying to throw a bunch of rules at them and tell them this is the way they should be doing. I have learned so much just talking to them, and understanding their schedules and what their days look like and how food safety interacts with that.

Bryson

Yeah, that's amazing. That's amazing. This is awesome. So we're talking with Caitlin Edsall, the Food Safety Director for Eden Green. I really love that perspective of leadership. And I think that it is a perspective that is so overlooked, I think so many leaders get caught up in making the “right choices” or going in the “right direction”, and bringing others with them that they oftentimes forget to ask, “What is real? What do you need? Is this realistic? How can we make this better?”. And that's something that I've learned as I've been in different leadership positions is, nobody knows the task better than people doing it. It's so much better to ask questions than to just start barking orders, right. And I think that that's something that you've done a really great job at is, you know, you start developing relationships where people are not afraid to come to you with a problem or with an issue. They're not afraid of getting in trouble. Instead, they realize that we can find a solution, right. And I think that's massive. I think that's so big.

Caitlin

That's something I really wanted to happen. I didn't want me to be that person that just walks around. And it's like minus one point. I want you to ask me questions. And one thing I really love that we started in the past, well, I guess it's been a little over a year now is our food safety committee. And so that has been really great. All the members of the Food Safety Committee are not managers. They're just someone from the team, a team member that is interested in Food Safety. I have representatives from all across our company, and right now we're meeting once a month, and it is the greatest. It has been such a huge help. Because once again, it's people that are doing the job. And in those meetings, usually I'll do a little training at the beginning, we'll talk about some different topics, just because I want to make sure that they're getting something out of it too and learning something. But most of the meeting is an open forum. Let me know what you need. What questions do you have? And a lot of it is questions. They're just like, you know, I'm seeing some people doing this. Is this a risk in some ways or some way we should be doing this better? So, I mean, I love it. It's been a huge help for me and my job, but also I feel like I'm getting to reach out and get to know you upon the team's better