As living standards improve, people demand a higher food safety standard. China is giving more attention to food safety with the hope that the food safety standards can catch up with international levels. The Non-Hazard Livestock Production Verification and Validation program has been implemented all around China. Its purpose is to control the quality of production from the farm to the table, to enhance the standard of livestock production quality and to ensure the consumption of safe food.

To further the work on Non-Hazard livestock production Verification and Validation in Yanbian Prefecture and to strengthen awareness of the farmers, two On-farm Food Safety courses were held in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Region, Jilin Province in 2009. The courses were supported by the technical manager who is responsible for food safety with support by the relative governors of the animal husbandry bureaus on Non-Hazard livestock production Verification and Validation and Bio-security system and with the great cooperation and support from the AHB of Yanbian Prefecture. This activity was conducted twice in different locations. The first training course was held from August 20-21 at Longjing City, Forty-three (43) trainees attended this training, 27 male,16 female and 20 of which were Korean. The second time was September 8-9 at Hunchun City with 53 trainees, 41male,10 female, of which 21 were Korean and 1 was Manchu. Longjing City AHB and Hunchun City AHB gave a lot of support for the arrangement of these courses, which ensured that the trainings went smoothly and successfully.

The main facilitators, Dr. Paul Schneider, the LTTA of LHESP Jilin office, Madame Zhang Xiurong, the head of Longjing City Animal Husbandry Station, and Mr. Li Jinghuan, the deputy head of Yanbian Prefecture Animal Husbandry Station gave the vivid lectures in these trainings. They introduced Bio-security in an On-Farm Food Safety Plan, Procedures and Requirements for the Chinese Non-Hazard Food Production and the Current Situation of the Non-Hazardous Food Safety Certification respectively.

Through these trainings, participants learned some new knowledge about the Chinese Non-hazardous Livestock Production Verification and Validation programs, livestock production safety, bio-security and how some Canadian livestock production systems function. The participants learned more about the current situation of livestock production quality and safety in China and that preventing disease is more important than treating disease. They realized they have to develop a good program for farm bio-security and take serious measures on epidemic disease prevention and control aspects. To enhance food safety and quality is a fundamental requirement for improving people’s living standards. These were very essential and timely trainings for the technical managers of the farms and for the animal health workers. After these trainings they plan to develop and implement bio-security programs as soon as possible. They are eager to get more opportunities from the project in order to learn more in the days to come.

During the training, the trainees participated in the training activities very actively, especially the female participants. In Longjing, this activity was combined with the environment awareness in rural villages activity (2411.9). The students were from Longjing Primary school. Those who attained an excellent ranking in the environmental competition in the 2411.9 activity held in April, 2009 were invited to present their opinions on environmental topics at the beginning of the food safety training. Some of these students expressed their own ideas in their own language – Korean, some of them in Chinese. Some excerpts from their messages:“…the Earth mother cried, we felt very sad…”,”…the Earth is melting, she is still very young, she doesn’t want to die soon….”“….let us protect our planet….”. The participants were touched by the appeal from those students’ hearts.

In the feedback, some trainees wrote: Through the presentations given by these students from primary school, we felt ashamed about the state of environment protection. Even such little kids have such high environmental protection awareness, how about us adults? What do we do for this planet? When we are back to the work we will pay more attention to animal environment hygiene and strengthen the environment management for raising animals to decrease the pollution caused by our farms.

Participants giving their help for training arrangements	In the opening ceremony, Mr. Jin Chengfan introducing himself to the participants	The LTTA, Dr. Paul Schneider giving the environmental protection pins to the students

The LTTA, Dr. Paul Schneider giving the lecture about On-Farm Food Safety	Mr. Liu, the deputy head of Yanbian Prefecture AHB explaining the pictures drawn by the students	A picture with the future environmental protection angels