Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audience includes Deans and Directors of the land grant universities in the Northeast, professionals at USDA and within NIFA, faculty and educators across the region, policy makers, planners, citizens, and other audiences, depending on the topic. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We engage several postdocs and graduate students in our research projects, who are exposed to new ideas, methods, research resources, and colleagues across the nation. The teams funded by our small-grants program gained exposure to new programming ideas and in turn delivered content to communities, which also benefit from this new knowledge. The presentations and papers authored by NERCRD researchers have provided learning opportunities to a countless number of audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. For example, our research on the role of community food services during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic was covered by mainstream media outlets and shared on social media platforms, thereby fostering learning among those who consume this media. During this reporting period, we hosted and co-organized numerous webinars on behalf of the National Extension Tourism network where attendees learned from peers about community and coastal tourism projects. The Listening Session effort engaged 22 facilitators from the national Extension system, who gained experience managing online group discussions and briefing federal partners. Center staff also gained experience managing a national communications campaign aimed at recruiting participants. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Listening Session survey findings were shared in January 2022 via a widely distributed report and later by a data dashboard. We also engaged the facilitators of the National Topic Sessions to provide rapid debrief of those sessions' outcomes for NIFA personnel. We also have briefed key stakeholders (e.g., NACDEP and Northeast FCS Program Leaders) on qualitative findings. With the Council of Food, Agriculture, and Resource Economics (C-FARE) and the Federal Reserve Board, we co-organized a panel discussion to elaborate on Listening Session findings and how they can inform efforts to address rural prosperity. In addition, we have disseminated results from other various NERCRD efforts via webinars, our website, press releases, our bi-monthly newsletter, social media platforms and multiple presentations given by the Director and postdoctoral scholars and partners, as documented in our Annual Report. Outputs from the small-grant teams were shared via the NERCRD newsletter, website, and social media. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Examples of this project's impact: New regional knowledge-sharing networks were created in the areas of Main Street resilience, outdoor recreation data collection and usage, and marketing rural towns to new residents. An inventory of tourism programming in the Extension and Sea Grant systems revealed gaps and opportunities for expansion. Policy makers and citizens have a greater understanding of how households have been affected by the pandemic in terms of food insufficiency, and of the role of food pantries early in a pandemic. Goal 1: Extension Community Capacity Building During this three-year grant cycle, we launched a new iteration of our small-grants program, resulting in three multi-state teams that went on to complete their projects despite major challenges posed by the pandemic. (A fourth was unable to work around these challenges and withdrew their proposal.) These teams and their objectives are described in detail in earlier funding reports. Major outcomes include: A coalition of academic, public, and non-profit entities in the region who are creating a regional unified strategy for collecting, aggregating, and using bike-pedestrian data to inform local and regional decision making, planning, and transportation investments. They published a peer-reviewed article and four info-briefs that explore various aspects of bike/ped data collection and usage. The Marketing Hometown America curriculum has been adapted for online delivery and piloted in two NE communities. Shared scholarship and capacity building in a niche program area for Extension staff--working with the rural communities who lack capacity for a traditional Main Street program. Our support of the National Extension Tourism (NET) leadership team continued to grow and evolve, and this support enabled the team to develop a strategic plan in 2020. Subsequently, NERCRD and NET were selected by USDA NIFA for special funding and technical support through the Extension Foundation's New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE). Activities made possible through the NTAE project are described in detail in our NERCRD 2020 progress report, submitted 8/2022. Major outcomes of our support outside of the NTAE initiative include: Our graduate-student researcher, Yuxuan Pan, provided research support to an inventory of all tourism-related Extension and Sea Grant programming nationally, which resulted in: A report documenting the distribution, depth, and breadth of tourism and outdoor recreation programming offered by the Land- and Sea Grant Extension services; the regional impacts of this programming; and opportunities for expanding this programming nationally. A presentation at the National Extension Tourism conference in November 2021, which also will be included in a conference proceedings (forthcoming). A peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Extension (Arbogast et al, 2022). Arbogast, D., Eades, D., Goetz, S., & Pan, Y. (2022). Extension and Tourism: Previous Efforts, Current Trends, and the Future. Journal of Extension, 60(2). https://doi.org/10.34068/joe.60.02.07 Goal 2: Economic Development, including Resilience and Rural Innovation As reported in the NERCRD 2020 progress report, NERCRD led a collaboration with the other RRDCs designing and implementing a national Listening Session process aimed at identifying key priorities and critical investments for rural communities' post-COVID recovery and growth. A comprehensive report is forthcoming. One key finding is that expansion potential was lowest in topics of highest priority, revealing a wide gulf between what rural stakeholders and communities reported needing and the current capacity of organizations to engage in programming in those areas. These results suggest that capacity-building should be a systemic effort. Findings were shared with the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, several units within USDA NIFA, and to a webinar convened by the Federal Reserve Board and the Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a new kind of shock through which our researchers examined supply chains and their vulnerabilities and opportunities. For example, postdoctoral scholars Tian and Han led research examining pandemic-related changes in the housing market, in terms of both price changes and shortages and surpluses of building contractors. They presented preliminary findings at the Southern Regional Science Association meeting in 2021. Findings on the latter effort indicate that many rural counties have a shortage of specialty contractor labor, suggesting that Interventions to support rural labor force development in this subsector may also require incentivization programs. We also examined the pandemic's impacts on economic activity in the region as a whole, and at the tourism and hospitality sector specifically. Our findings are described in detail in briefs released through our COVID-19 Issues and Data Brief series, which currently includes 14 publications. Goal 3: Food Systems, including LRFS We also assessed the pandemic's effect on household food insufficiency, and examined the role of community food services in meeting the food needs of those households. This study is one of very few to have examined the effectiveness of community food services in the U.S., and it established that community food services (e.g., food pantries) are critical for communities to have in place, especially in the early phases of a major economic shock, such as a pandemic. We provided support and seed funding to the AgriCluster Resilience and Expansion (ACRE) pilot project, led by the Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems (affiliated with Cornell). Led by a trained facilitator, an ACRE project takes farm groups that are starting up or at a strategic crossroads through a five-step strategic business planning process. The process was successfully piloted with a group of New York onion growers, and has since received additional funding from Sustainable Agriculture Research Education (SARE) to build out the program infrastructure for broader delivery. As reported in prior-year progress reports, we partnered on a USDA AMS cooperative agreement led by University of Kentucky, contributing to research examining COVID-19 impacts on local and regional food systems and emerging strategies and innovations that address these shocks. Former NERCRD Postdoctoral Scholar Sarah Rocker represented NERCRD in this highly engaged project (until her departure in September 2021), which collected and disseminated easily digestible ideas, best practices, and readily adoptable approaches to COVID-19 adaptation Goal 4: Land Use and Balanced Use of Natural Resources Nothing new to report during this reporting period. Goal 5: Behavioral Health in Communities The opioid crisis has impacted many regions of the United States, transcending socioeconomic, demographic, and political divides. Our research exploring socioeconomic determinants and spatial disparities of fatalities caused by drug and opioid overdose (both intentional and unintentional) was published in the Review of Regional Studies in 2021. It focused speci?cally on rural-urban di?erences and understanding the separate role of net farm income in the drug overdose crisis. Our analysis indicates that rurality, as measured by lower population density, is associated with higher deaths rates. While this effect was small, the finding suggests that the relative health of the farm sector in rural areas may warrant more attention if the pressing health crisis is to be addressed effectively.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Goetz, S. J. (2022, May 19). Population Threshold Models for Local Alcoholic Beverage Manufacturing. European Association of Wine Economists?, Portugal.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Goetz, S. J., Heaton, C., Imran, M., Pan, Y., Tian, Z., Schmidt, C., Qazi, U., Oflid, F., & Mitra, P. (2021, October 14). Twitter/Google Trends Analysis of U.S. Food Security During COVID-19. Penn State SAFES-COVID Seed Grant Outcomes Forum #1, online.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Han, L., Goetz, S. J., Eades, D., Entsminger, J., & Arbogast, D. (2021, November 8). An Early Assessment of COVID-19⿿s Impact on Tourism in U.S. Counties: Decline and Recovery. National Extension Tourism Conference, Savannah, GA.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
NERCRD 2021 Annual Report. (2022). https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/publications/annual-report
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Arbogast, D., Goetz, S. J., Entsminger, J., Devlin, K., Ulmer, M., Qian, X., Eversole, D., Philips, M., Powell, J., & Rohring, E. (2021). Extension Tourism: Impact and Opportunities of Land- and Sea-Grant Programming Across U.S. Regions (p. 38). National Extension Tourism and Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Davlasheridze, M., & Goetz, S. J. (2021). Explaining Spatial Disparities in Fatal Drug Overdoses, 1970-2016. Review of Regional Studies. https://doi.org/10.52324/001c.31015
|
Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audience includes Deans and Directors of the land grant universities in the Northeast, professionals at USDA and within NIFA, faculty and educators across the region, policy makers, planners, citizens, and other audiences, depending on the topic. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We engage several postdocs and graduate students in our research projects, who are exposed to new ideas, methods, research resources, and colleagues across the nation. During this reporting period, we hosted and co-organized numerous webinars on behalf of the National Extension Tourism network that each had, on average, 146 registrants who learned from peers about community and coastal tourism projects. The teams funded by our small-grants program gained exposure to new programming ideas and in turn delivered content to communities, which also benefit from this new knowledge. The presentations and papers authored by NERCRD researchers have provided learning opportunities to a countless number of audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. For example, our research on female farmers in the US was covered by a number of mainstream media outlets and shared on social media platforms, thereby fostering learning among those who consume this media. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We continue to explore ways to forge connections with new and potential stakeholders, e.g., Entsminger has initiated conversations with the Northeast Climate Hub and new CED faculty at regional institutions, and Director Goetz has made several presentations to new leadership at the region's LGUs, the Pennsylvania Ag Council, and other groups. In addition, we have disseminated results via webinars, our website, press releases, our bi-monthly newsletter, social media platforms and multiple presentations given by the Director and postdoctoral scholars and partners, as documented in our Annual Report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to carry out work underway in our portfolio of grants, which includes a NIFA-funded competitive grant on rural innovation and another aimed at providing research-based information for farmers and ranchers considering an agritourism enterprise. We will continue to link stakeholders within the NE land-grant system through the further development of regional research and outreach affinity groups, through our work with the National Extension Tourism network, and through our newsletter and website. We will conduct a survey and listening sessions to help inform regional and national priorities related to economic resilience over the coming year. We will translate research findings from various efforts for a general audience in order to maximize learning outcomes.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Examples of this project's impact: Researchers and practitioners have a better understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on rural areas, and of the gaps and opportunities exposed by the pandemic. Consumers of news media, including agricultural service providers, are more aware of the importance and unique characteristics of female farmers in the U.S. Brewing professionals, destination marketing organizations, and others learned about craft-beverage collaborations to promote tourism (e.g., beer trails), and the challenges and opportunities presented by these ventures. A six-state group from academic, public, and non-profit entities has formed to develop a multi-state bicycle-pedestrian data collaboration. Goal 1: Extension Community Capacity Building As described in the last reporting period, the three teams funded through our small-grants program made substantial changes to their planned projects due to pandemic-related restrictions. These changes and each group's progress are described in our 2020 Annual Report (https://bit.ly/3uLLxuE). One noteworthy outcome is the formation of a broad coalition of academic, public, and non-profit entities that seeks to create a regional unified strategy for collecting, aggregating, and using bike-pedestrian data to inform local and regional decision making and planning and transportation investments. Their work is ongoing, and NERCRD staff are assisting in exploring ways for them to tap into existing networks and funding opportunities. Our support of the National Extension Tourism (NET) network and leadership team ramped up this year, as NET began the work outlined in their strategic plan (finalized in June 2020), including the planning of their national conference, currently scheduled to take place in Savannah, GA, in November 2021. With the February 2021 arrival of NERCRD's new Associate Director, Dr. Jason Entsminger, our capacity for building and supporting this and other networks in the region and nationally has grown substantially. For example, Entsminger and NERCRD Director Stephan Goetz are providing leadership to a NET-based effort to develop a multi-state Hatch project proposal, which is nearing completion, and to a report on the state of Extension Tourism programming nationally. Entsminger also is leading the response to an emerging opportunity to support NET via USDA NIFA funding made available through the Extension Foundation. The primary goal of this effort is to support planning for NET's long-term growth and sustainability. Entsminger also is building on Postdoctoral Scholar Sarah Rocker's work focused on forming regional research and practice affinity groups. A pilot affinity group will focus on "Recovery, Revitalization, and Resiliency," and Entsminger facilitated a discussion aimed at informing the direction and format of this group at the annual regional meeting of NACDEP members in May 2020. Goal 2: Economic Development including resilience and innovation USDA NIFA has provided separate funding for the four RRDCs to lead a series of listening sessions to help inform regional and national priorities related to economic resilience over the coming year. The planning process is underway, with NERCRD leading development of a national survey, to be launched in the next reporting period and followed by regional listening sessions and topic-specific national sessions. A special issue of Choices magazine (published by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association) was prepared in collaboration with NERCRD on behalf of the Regional Rural Development Centers, with Director Goetz serving as co-editor and Business Manager Kim Boonie providing administrative and editorial support. The issue was themed "Rural Development Implications One Year After COVID-19," and contains eight peer-reviewed papers that explore the pandemic's effects on aspects of rural life ranging from employment and childcare to recreational trail use and farming. A companion webinar hosted by C-FARE was attended by 126 people. Dr. Charlie French wrapped up his research fellowship aimed at improving our understanding of characteristics of resilient rural communities, and the resulting book, titled "Building Rural Community Resilience Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship," is nearing publication (Routledge). NERCRD researchers contributed two chapters, and NERCRD communications staff edited an additional chapter. We continue to pursue several lines of inquiry related to economic resilience and innovation, including our separately funded USDA NIFA project on Rural Emergence and Vitality. Our 2019 ARC-funded research on Economic Resilience in Appalachia remains relevant as communities begin to plan for recovery from COVID-19, and we continue to share it via presentations to stakeholder groups such as the Appalachia Leadership Institute and via interviews with news media (e.g., "Pennsylvania Wilds Optimistic for Economic Rebound as Tourists Travel Closer to Home," WPSU, 7/7/2021). Goal 3: Food Systems, including LRFS As partners on a USDA AMS cooperative agreement led by UK, we have participated in research examining COVID-19 impacts on local and regional food systems and emerging strategies and innovations that address these shocks. Postdoctoral Scholar Sarah Rocker represents NERCRD in this highly engaged project, which is collecting and disseminating easily digestible ideas, best practices, and readily adoptable approaches to COVID-19 adaptation, available on the project website: https://lfscovid.localfoodeconomics.com/. NERCRD also provided support to a strategic value-chain planning program led by the Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture at Cornell. The framework was piloted with a group of onion growers in New York, and has since received additional support from NE-SARE to expand the program regionally. Work is underway on USDA NIFA-funded multi-state project on agritourism led by NERCRD faculty affiliate Claudia Schmidt and aimed at assisting small and medium-sized farms engage in agritourism ventures. With separate funding from the PA Liquor Control Board, Schmidt also conducted a year-long project looking at collaborations between craft-beverage businesses and destination marketing organizations to attract visitors. NERCRD staff supported the dissemination of her findings by hosting a webinar, editing and publishing the report, and publicizing it across the RRDC networks. The report has been downloaded more than 300 times at present, and provides practical tips and strategies for others interested in establishing a beverage-related tourism attraction in their locale. Goal 4: Land use and balanced use of natural resources We are providing communications support to the planning committee of the joint National Extension Energy and National Sustainability Summits, including website development and publicity for the biennial event, which is scheduled for October 4-6, 2021 at Penn State. Goal 5: Behavioral Health in Communities Along with the other RRDCs, we provided support to the National Behavioral Health Extension Network (NBH E-Net), which is aimed at supporting training and technical assistance for the dissemination of science-based behavioral health resources within the LGU system. The network has hired staff, started website development, and obtained further funding. With funding from Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, we conducted an analysis on the sentiments and emotions expressed in Tweets geo-tagged to U.S. States in the first three months of the pandemic as they relate to food insufficiency. Our results suggest that social media platforms such as Twitter can provide insights into the emotions and sentiments of users in a given community related to a concern such as food insufficiency or security.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Chase, L., Schmidt, C., & Hollas, C. (2021, May 15). Agritourism Development and Research in the USA. International Conference on Agritourism, hosted by Agri Tourism India, online.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Chenarides, L., Bonanno, A., & Palmer, A. (2020). If You Build Them& Will it Matter? Food Stores Presence and Perceived Barriers to Purchasing Healthy Foods in the Northeastern U.S. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, aepp.13098. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13098
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, S. J. (2020, September 25). Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. Northeast Extension Directors Board of Directors Meeting.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Goetz, S. J. (2020, November 17). Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. University of Vermont Capable Communities Result Area Team.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Goetz, S. J. (2021, June 24). The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. Northeast Extension Directors (NEED)/Northeast Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NERA) Virtual Joint Summer Sessions, Online.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, C. (2020, November 18). Changing Consumer Food Sourcing in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Penn State Extension Land Use Webinar Series, online.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, C., & Crissy, H. (2020, October 7). Agritourism and COVID-19. 6th annual Lancaster County Ag Week.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, C., Goetz, S. J., Chase, L., Tomas, S., & Schweichler, J. (2020, October 28). Agritourism Support Indicators for the United States. International Workshop on Agritourism, Burlington, VT.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Schmidt, C., Goetz, S. J., & Tian, Z. (2021). Female farmers in the United States: Research needs and policy questions. Food Policy, 101, 102039. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102039
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
New study examines importance and unique characteristics of U.S. female farmers. (2021, March 1). Penn State News. https://news.psu.edu/story/649290/2021/03/01/research/new-study-examines-importance-and-unique-characteristics-us-female
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Tian, Z., & Goetz, S. J. (2020, November 10). Using Google Trends to Predict Initial Claims of Unemployment Insurance During the COVID-19 Pandemic. North American Regional Science Council annual meeting, Online.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Han, Y., Goetz, S. J., & Schmidt, C. (2021). Visualizing Spatial Economic Supply Chains to Enhance Sustainability and Resilience. Sustainability, 13(3), 1512. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031512
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Rocker, S. J., & Brislen, L. (2021, June 15). Dashing the Bottom Line: Economic complexity and existential reckoning in local and regional food systems in response to Covid-19. Panel: COVID and Regional Food Systems, part of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values conference.
|
Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience includes Deans and Directors of the land grant universities in the Northeast, professionals at USDA and within NIFA, faculty and educators across the region, policymakers, planners, citizens and other audiences, depending on the topic. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We engage several postdocs and graduate students in our research projects, who are exposed to new ideas, methods, research resources, and colleagues across the nation. During this reporting period, two of our postdocs have secured permanent positions in government and academia, where they will build on the research methods in which we provided training. The participants of the USDA Rural Development's OPPE workshops gain insight into capacity building and working with federal partners. The teams funded by our small-grants program gain exposure to new programming ideas and many receive training in those programs. They, in turn, deliver content to communities which also benefit from new knowledge. The presentations and papers authored by Center researchers have provided learning opportunities to a countless number of audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. For example, our press releases, aimed at translating peer-reviewed journal articles into mainstream media content, are picked up by multiple media outlets and shared on social media platforms, thereby fostering learning among those who consume this media. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We shared resources generated by the Center through our website, press releases, our bi-monthly newsletter, social media platforms and multiple presentations given by the Director and postdoctoral scholars and partners, as documented in our Annual Report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to carry out work underway in our portfolio of grants, including a NIFA-funded competitive grant on rural innovation and an AMS cooperative agreement looking at COVID-19 impacts on of the local and regional food systems and emerging strategies and innovations that address these shocks. We will continue to link stakeholders within the NE land-grant system through the further development of regional research and outreach affinity groups, through our small-grants program, our newsletter and website, and through our work with multi-state groups such as the National Extension Tourism network, NACDEP, and the Lyson Center. We will translate research findings from various efforts for a general audience in order to maximize learning outcomes.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Examples of this project's impact: · Scientists, practitioners, and community-based stakeholders have a better understanding of the relationship between high-risk jobs and opioid misuse issues. · Consumers of news media are more aware of new research on rural innovation, the agricultural implications of growth in breweries, and of community factors affecting life expectancy, as a result of our media releases published through Penn State News and Futurity. · Communities are better poised to engage their citizens around key topic areas, as a result of the OPPE workshops. · Postdoctoral scholars who received specialized training in regional science research methods at our Center have gone on to secure permanent positions at a federal agency and at an academic institution, where they will continue to conduct impactful research and outreach. Goal 1. Extension-Community Capacity Building As reported in prior-year funding reports (grants #2018-51150-28696 and #2017-41150-27125), we launched and funded another iteration of our small-grants program, continued our collaboration with the National Extension Tourism network, supported several organizations in their efforts to pivot in-person programs to virtual programs, and took initial steps towards establishing regional research and outreach affinity groups. In addition, building on the recommendation by our Board and TAC to bring on a Center fellow to deepen regional ties, we created a new Associate Director position. This person will be responsible for leading the Center's outreach oriented activities in consultation with the Director by (1) fostering relationships among northeast land grant universities and key rural development partners; (2) identifying and responding to opportunities for cross-state collaborations and sharing of programs; (3) pursuing funding opportunities in potentially high-impact areas that would benefit from outreach programming; (4) providing expertise and direction in developing and implementing program strategies, including helping to translate scientific findings into practice. During this reporting period, Postdoctoral Scholar Sarah Rocker represented our Center in the RRDC partnership with the USDA Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE) in delivering virtual workshops intended to strengthen the capacity of community-based organizations working at the state or community level on four key content areas: veterans, workforce development; socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and housing. Dr. Rocker is leading the workshop-planning effort for the socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers content, which will be targeted toward stakeholders in the Southern states. Goal 2. Economic Development, including Resilience and Innovation As part of an EDA-funded project led by Indiana University, we contributed to research looking at the role of regional levels of religiosity on a region's economic resilience using employment rate returns to pre-recession levels as a measure of resilience. We found a modest and statistically significant association between religious belief and regional resilience to recession. The research manuscript, published in Risk, Hazards, and Crisis in Public Policy, offers policy insights and recommendations around working with existing faith communities before and after a recession. We have a paper in review on visualizing spatial supply chains.This effort has become especially pertinent in the COVID-19 pandemic, as the research will potentially help decision makers better anticipate spatial supply chain bottlenecks as well as risks to workers from exposure (e.g., in food processing facilities). We have partnered with Penn State Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, Dr. Claudia Schmidt, who is leading a three-year NIFA-funded study of agritourism in the United States aimed at developing research-based information and guidance for farmers looking to diversify their incomes through agritourism activities. This will complement our ongoing work with the National Extension Tourism network. Dr. Schmidt is also leading our examination of the roles of female-operated farms in maintaining agricultural vitality at the county-level, which is underway. Goal 3. Food Systems, including Local and Regional Foods As mentioned under Goal 1, above, we are working with OPPE on delivering virtual workshops to help communities expand their capacity for working with socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. Also mentioned above, we have partnered with a Penn State-led project on agritourism to develop a research-based resource for agritourism support organizations, such as agritourism associations, municipalities, conservation authorities, business chambers, destination marketing organizations and agritourism operators to help them navigate these barriers. This work will ultimately strengthen the resilience of farms and food systems by diversifying income opportunities and creating new marketing channels for producers. We published a general methods-related paper on rewiring in networks (PlosONE), demonstrating a new way of measuring how relationships in a network change over time. These changes can reveal important details about the network, which could include applications to changes in the food system. Goal 4. Land Use and Balanced Use of Natural Resources As reported in our 2018 funding report (2018-51150-28696), we have continued to examine the characteristics, contributions and relative performance of agriculture in the U.S. Northeast compared to the rest of the nation, with a draft manuscript nearing completion. Goal 5. Behavioral Health in Communities Postdoctoral Scholar Devon Meadowcroft conducted research on potential reasons why certain areas of the U.S. are impacted more than others with regard to opioid misuse issues. One such study shows that a county's percentage of workers in high-risk jobs is positively associated with their number of opioid-related deaths, which holds true for both illicit opioids and prescription opioids. These findings suggest that work-related injuries in high-risk industries could lead to more prescriptions for opioids for pain management, which in turn translate to higher rates of opioid misuse. Dr. Meadowcroft presented her research at multiple venues, including at an addiction symposium which brought together scientists, physicians, clinicians, students, educators, community stakeholders, and leaders in the Federal and Pennsylvania State and government to learn about the problem of addiction in Pennsylvania and to promote communication and collaboration across disciplines.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Devlin, Kristen. Community Factors Influence How Long Youll Live, Study Shows. Penn State News, March 9, 2020. https://news.psu.edu/story/611083/2020/03/09/research/community-factors-influence-how-long-you%E2%80%99ll-live-study-shows.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Devlin, Kristen. Craft-Beer Boom Linked to Record Number of US States Growing Hops. Penn State News, January 2, 2020. https://news.psu.edu/story/602813/2020/01/02/research/craft-beer-boom-linked-record-number-us-states-growing-hops.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Devlin, Kristen. For Small and Minority Farmers, Networks Influence the Bottom Line. Penn State News, April 20, 2020. https://news.psu.edu/story/615847/2020/04/20/research/small-and-minority-farmers-networks-influence-bottom-line.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Devlin, Kristen. Innovation Is Widespread in Rural Areas, Not Just Cities. Penn State News, January 2, 2020. https://news.psu.edu/story/602839/2020/01/02/research/innovation-widespread-rural-areas-not-just-cities.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Devlin, Kristen. Researchers to Create a Roadmap for Fostering Successful Agritourism Enterprises. Penn State News, July 9, 2020. https://news.psu.edu/story/625451/2020/07/09/research/researchers-create-roadmap-fostering-successful-agritourism.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, C. "Women in Agritourism - Legal Risks, A Research Update," Women in Agritourism - Risk Management Webinar Series, PSU extension, NERME, Webinar, 20 in attendance. May 4, 2020.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, Claudia, Elizabeth Dobis, and Stephan J. Goetz (March 11, 2020). Beer Trail Development in Pennsylvania [conference session] 4th Culinary and Wine Tourism Conference, Geisenheim, Germany. (Conference canceled due to COVID-19.)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Schmidt, Claudia, and Stephan J. Goetz (March 11, 2020). Agritourism Development in Pennsylvania. [conference session] 4th Culinary and Wine Tourism Conference, Geisenheim, Germany. (Conference canceled due to COVID-19.)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Tian, Zheng, Stephan J. Goetz, and Charlie French (March 18, 2020). Hard-to-Count Populations and Census Participation Across the Rural-Urban Continuum [conference session]. Joint Meeting of Pacific Regional Science Conference Organization (PRSCO) and the Western Regional Science Association (WRSA), Waikiki, HI. (Conference canceled due to COVID-19.)
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