Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/24
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:Replacing the Associate Director during and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic was a major challenge. While this did not affect the Center's research productivity, progress on many Extension activities was held up. With the new hiring, we now expect to recover quickly from this staffing challenge. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We engage several postdocs, graduate students, and early career researchers in our research projects, who are exposed to new ideas, methods, research resources, and colleagues across the nation. The presentations and papers authored by NERCRD researchers and webinars organized by NERCRD staff have provided learning opportunities to countless audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. Stephen Alessi, who joined the NERCRD as Associate Director, is gaining new experience in this capacity, and we supported his travel to capacity-building events including NACDEP and the Maryland Digital Equity Summit. The Northeast Digital Equity Summit provided participants with professional development in digital equity best practices, barriers, and opportunities, and resulted in a new knowledge-sharing network. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?NERCRD disseminated information and resources through eight email newsletters and numerous social media posts. The staff also attended several conferences to engage with stakeholders and present research findings. This year, we participated in the Pennsylvania Ag Summit, hosted by PA Representative Glenn Thompson, and Ag Progress Days, the state's largest outdoor agricultural expo. At these events, we showcased the importance of vibrant rural economies in supporting agriculture through a visual display. Ag Progress Days attracts around 45,000 attendees over three days. Additionally, we shared research findings through four Penn State News releases, which summarized key points from peer-reviewed scientific articles in accessible language for non-scientists. Of particular significance is the completion of our new website, launched publicly in February 2024 after 18 months of behind-the-scenes effort. Stakeholders will be able to find resources more easily, and NERCRD staff are able to share outputs more efficiently on the new platform. Project Director Goetz participated in a USDA Rural Roundtable panel in Erie, PA to discuss the importance of rural community vitality to the farm economy, and to share ways in which the RRDCs bring land grant university research and outreach capacity to bear on the many challenges that rural areas face. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1a. As reported previously, the separately funded Rural Innovation project closed in April 2023, but led to further lines of inquiry that we continue to pursue, given our ongoing access to the Census Research Data Center and the alignment with Center objectives. Recent papers published examined how export performance is mediated by innovation, owner characteristics, and location; and whether microbusinesses, which constitute a significant portion of U.S. firms with employees, are less likely to report innovation compared to other small businesses. 1b. This research has focused most recently on the dairy supply chain, resulting in a presentation made at the Food Distribution Research Society Meeting in October 2024, titled "Decomposition of the U.S. Dairy Supply Chain: Implications for Sustainability and Resilience in the Post-COVID Era." This analysis revealed that most dairy products are sold directly to consumers through grocery stores, with significant flows to government services, exports, and food service establishments. It highlights the importance of diversifying market channels and increasing supply chain adaptability to enhance the industry's resilience to future shocks. At the same FDRS meeting, we presented research examining the resilience of the alcoholic beverage manufacturing sector in the face of two major shocks: the Covid-19 pandemic and the Great Recession using Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data from 2005-2023. Our analysis reveals that drinking places experienced sharp declines during pandemic shutdowns but rebounded quickly, though unevenly across regions. By understanding these spatial processes, our work aims to help industry and community leaders better prepare for future economic shocks, recognizing the sector's growing importance in local recreational economies and tourism. 1c. Work on this objective was not initiated due to the 20-month period in which the NERCRD was operating without an Associate Director. (September 2022-June 2024). However, our tourism related work will contribute in part to meeting this objective, and we will continue to explore opportunities in this area, including by addressing community livability. 1d. We have pursued this work under two separate projects. One is funded by USDA NIFA and led by Heather Stephens (WVU) and to date has resulted in an 80-page data report that provides insights into minority and female entrepreneurship in each Northeast state. NERCRD published this report on its website in October 2024 and is disseminating it broadly. The other is conducted in collaboration with James Davis and Anil Rupasingha of USDA ERS. Preliminary findings have been shared at academic conferences and analyses will continue through next year. 2a. As reported last year and in the NERCRD 2022 progress report, we continued to contribute to the NIFA-funded agritourism project led by Claudia Schmidt. During this reporting period, two studies that we contributed to were published in peer-reviewed journals. The first quantitatively examined the link between women farmers and community well-being, and showed a positive association, suggesting that women farmers approach their operations in ways that positively impact their communities. The second examined how high-speed broadband promotes agritourism. Our main finding--that availability and adoption of high-speed broadband appears to boost the number of farms offering agritourism activities--bolsters the argument for expanding broadband availability in support of farm operators who want to benefit from the growing consumer interest in on-farm experiences. These findings were widely publicized via two Penn State News releases produced by NERCRD staff. NERCRD also provided funding to support the doctoral dissertation research of Penn State Geography student Zachary Goldberg who examined "Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development on Farmland in the Mid-Atlantic United States." The goal of this work was to learn about farmers who operate in proximity to solar energy development (SED), including how they perceive and are impacted by it. Goldberg conducted eight case studies of grid-scale solar developments in Maryland and Pennsylvania, which included interviews with farmers and community stakeholders, to better understand direct and indirect impacts from SED. Goldberg shared his preliminary findings in a report submitted to NERCRD late last year, and has been sharing these results through various presentations, one of which was featured in Lancaster Farming. 2b. We contributed to an effort led by Schmidt, also funded separately, to produce two data briefs that shed light on agritourism and direct-to-consumer sales utilizing data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture. While this effort to translate research into outreach materials falls under the separate NIFA grant led by Schmidt, NERCRD staff contributed editorial and design support, authored a press release and took the lead on widely publicizing the data briefs. 2c. Work on this objective was not initiated due to the 20-month period in which the NERCRD was operating without an Associate Director. (September 2022-June 2024). We will ramp up this activity in the future with the recent hiring of the Associate Director. 3a. As a follow-up to the Northeast Digital Equity Summit (reported on in NERCRD 2022 progress report), we collaborated with UMD Extension colleagues to publish a report from the event. Associate Director Alessi participated in a follow-up event organized by UMD Extension and will also participate in a series of UMD-led Visioning Sessions to define both short- and long-term goals that will help shape the future of digital equity across the region. NERCRD staff continues to provide modest support to the National Extension Tourism Network while investing more time in the sub-group focused on Outdoor Recreation. NERCRD staff is also working with NECI Chair, David Kay, on exploring ways the RRDCs can support the organization. We hosted or co-hosted two webinars during this reporting period, providing a knowledge sharing platform for stakeholders focused on tourism and broadband expansion. 4a. NERCRD disseminated information and resources through several channels as described under the next section of this report. Our efforts resulted in modest subscriber growth and considerable social media growth during this reporting period. With a new associate director on board, we hope to accelerate efforts to connect with new audiences going forward. 4b. Our efforts resulted in considerable social media growth and modest subscriber growth during this reporting period. With the new Associate Director on board, we expect to accelerate efforts to connect with new audiences going forward. 4c. Work on this objective was completed in 2022, as described previously.
Publications
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Han, Luyi, Zheng Tian, Timothy R. Wojan, and Stephan J. Goetz. 2024. Testing Biasedness of Self-Reported Microbusiness Innovation in the Annual Business Survey. Plos ONE, January. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296667. ORCID IDs of authors: 0000-0001-7886-398X; 0000-0001-8204-539X; 0000-0001-9863-1457; 000-0003-4529-552X.
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Han, Luyi, Timothy R. Wojan, and Stephan J. Goetz. 2024. Cloud Computing and Rural Globalization: Evidence for the U.S. Nonfarm Economy. Telecommunications Policy 48 (8): 102814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2024.102814. ORCID IDs of authors: 0000-0001-7886-398X; 0000-0001-9863-1457; 000-0003-4529-552X.
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Han, Luyi, Timothy R. Wojan, Zheng Tian, and Stephan J. Goetz. 2024. How Export Performance Is Mediated by Innovation, Owner Characteristics, and Location. Economics Letters 237 (April):111657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111657. ORCID IDs of authors: 000-0001-7886-398X; 0000-0001-9863-1457; 0000-0001-8204-539X; 000-0003-4529-552X.
- Type:
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Schmidt, Claudia, Steven C. Deller, and Stephan J. Goetz. 2024. Women Farmers and Community Well-Being under Modeling Uncertainty. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 46(1): 275299. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13406. ORCID ID of authors: 0000-0002-8597-7288; 0000-0003-4457-3444; 0000-0003-4529-552X.
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
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:We have encountered delays in replacing the previous Associate Director, who departed in September 2022 for a tenure-track faculty position. In large part the resulting delay is due to hiring challenges caused by the current state of the job market. We continue our efforts to fill this position and hope to complete the process in 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We engage several postdocs, graduate students, and early career researchers in our research projects, who are exposed to new ideas, methods, research resources, and colleagues across the nation. The National Extension Tourism Leadership Team continued to receive technical assistance and training in marketing and communications, strategic planning, partnership development, and organizational leadership. Center staff who supported the development of two conference proceedings during this reporting period have gained new project-management and publication-production experience. The presentations and papers authored by NERCRD researchers have provided learning opportunities to a countless number of audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. The Listening Session final report was distributed to rural stakeholders nationally, providing actionable insights into where investments can be made in rural recovery post-COVID. We supported an early career researcher to travel to NACDEP 2023 to present her work on incentivizing ecosystem service production on working lands, where she was able to gain insights into her research and to the issues served by NACDEP. Peter Wulfhorst, who is helping us with capacity building efforts as we search for a new Associate Director, is gaining new experience in this capacity, including participating at the national meeting of state program leaders at NACDEP, and in convening groups at a regional scale. NERCRD staff attended the in-person RRDC strategic planning meeting hosted by the NCRCRD at Purdue University, where we benefitted from and contributed to dialogue with RRDC colleagues on organizational issues, strategic planning, communications, and grant reporting. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We disseminated our Listening Session findings nationally, via our Federal partners' communication platforms, the Extension Committee on Policy, through a collaborative webinar series with the Council on Food and Agriculture (C-FARE), multiple listservs, and many other channels. We presented research findings from several efforts at numerous conferences, including the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association, National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals, North American Regional Science Council, Southern Regional Science Association, Western Regional Science Association, and on various webinars. We issued four NERCRD newsletters, shared dozens of social media posts, and wrote and distributed press releases. Our annual report, which serves as a comprehensive accounting of all our activities, is shared widely via mail, email, and in-person events. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will host a Northeast Digital Equity Summit (Sept. 19), which will address a key recommendation from the Listening Sessions, related to broadband promotion. We also expect to write up and begin to disseminate key findings and conclusions from the Summit. We will continue the dissemination as well as integrate the findings with key results from our research on the role of broadband in supporting rural innovation. In addition, we will support the Community Development Competencies initiative underway in the NE, together with Extension partners. We also will continue work on the impact indicators initiative in the Northeast. Even if not each of the NE states is able to collect and report on a wide set of indicators, we expect to find common ground on up to three such measures, and to combine the reports available with those of the Southern and North Central regions, aiming at a more comprehensive national report. We will continue our research on topics outlined above, for example on how the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) affected minority and female employment from 2012 to 2019. We will complete the redesign of the NERCRD website.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Economic Development, Resilience, and Innovation Research and Outreach Objectives 1A and 1C - While the separately funded National Listening Session effort formally closed in August 2022, work on this effort continued well into 2023. During Fall 2022, in collaboration with the other RRDCs, we prepared a comprehensive report summarizing the quantitative and qualitative findings from the year-long initiative, and arranged for 10 external reviewers to conduct a blind review of the report. After responding to reviewers' suggestions, we formatted and published the final report in February 2023. This analysis revealed gaps in capacity of rural communities and identified and prioritized investments that could fill these gaps. We disseminated our findings nationally, via our Federal partners' communication platforms, the Extension Committee on Policy, through a collaborative webinar series with the Council on Food and Agriculture (C-FARE), multiple listservs, and many other channels. As a result, rural stakeholders, decision makers, and federal partners have gained actionable insights into where investments can be made in rural recovery post-COVID. The findings, especially those pertinent to the Northeast, also have informed NERCRD's work. For example, the Listening Sessions revealed infrastructure to be a high priority for Northeast stakeholders, and we have incorporated this into our research and outreach efforts, for example by contributing to research on the relationship between broadband access and the number of agritourism operations (Schmidt et al., 2023), and by organizing an upcoming Northeast Digital Equity Summit (see below). We also continued our work on the separately funded rural innovation project, which we report on in depth in the NERCRD 2022 progress report. Objective 1D - In a paper presented at AAEA in July 2023, we examined how the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) affected minority and female employment from 2012 to 2019. We also investigated whether the effects varied between metro and nonmetro areas. According to the statistically significant findings, the CRA designation increased residence-based employment in CRA-designated tracts, including job growth for female and minority groups. Additionally, we observed that these effects were higher in tracts located in non-metropolitan areas compared to metro areas. We will build on this work during the next reporting period. 2. Food System Objectives Objectives 2A and 2B - We continued to contribute to the NIFA-funded agritourism project led by Claudia Schmidt, including to a study that examined agritourism and direct sales clusters in the United States, published in Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. Our main finding--that agritourism and direct farm sales complement one another when they occur within the same county--can help farmers and the local organizations that support them plan strategically for farm resilience and growth. 2B) These findings were publicized widely via a Penn State news release and presentations. Building on this research, we contributed to an effort led by Schmidt, also funded separately, to produce agritourism and direct sales fact sheets for all 50 U.S. states. Each fact sheet provides the total number of farms in the state and the number engaging in agritourism, in direct sales, and in both activities. They also include detailed demographic and business information about these farms, including farmer age and gender, crops grown, farm size, and farm income generated by agritourism and direct sales. While this effort to translate research into outreach materials falls under the separate NIFA grant led by Schmidt, NERCRD staff authored a press release and took the lead on publicizing the fact sheets nationally. Objective 2C - Nothing to report at this time. 3. Capacity Building Objectives Objective 3A - As we continue to search for a new Associate Director following Jason Entsminger's September 2022 departure, Penn State Extension Educator Peter Wulfhorst is leading capacity-building efforts on an interim basis. This work includes collaborating with Penn State Extension, University of Maryland Extension, and Cornell Extension on the planning of a Northeast Digital Equity summit, which will take place in September 2023. After issuing a Call for Proposals in May 2023, the planning team led by Wulfhorst identified nine presentations that will provide a platform for Extension and Research faculty to learn from one another and expand capacity for digital equity programming in the Northeast. We also revived our occasional webinar series, featuring two webinars during this reporting period, intended to help stakeholders carry out their work and discover new opportunities for collaboration. The first of these was presented on December 15, 2022, by Penn State Senior Extension Associate Walt Whitmer on "Dealing with Contentious Public Issues." The second, organized by Wulfhorst, was held on June 28, 2023, and showcased a Penn State-led local climate action planning initiative; while this webinar described a Pennsylvania-based program and related opportunities for PA municipalities, it also provided non-PA viewers an overview of an innovative program that could potentially be replicated in other states. We successfully closed down the NIFA-funded New Technologies for Ag Extension project for the National Extension Tourism Network in February 2023. In the final six months of this project, NERCRD staff facilitated the completion of NET's first conference proceedings; several NET fact sheets; and a magazine-style publication that features eight case studies that explore innovative Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant work in sustainable tourism and outdoor recreation. NERCRD staff has continued to play a supporting role while the organization prepares for its upcoming NET 2023 conference and leadership change. However, at our annual in-person meeting in Newport, RI, our TAC and Board recommended stepping down our support of NET this year, due to the tremendous growth and increased stability the organization has achieved, and to increase our availability for other emerging issues and networks. We are exploring strategies for that transition with the incoming NET leadership. 4. Communications Objectives Objective 4A - We continued our tradition of curating events, opportunities, and resources from around the country and sharing with our stakeholders through our email list and social media accounts, issuing seven such emails during this reporting period. Objective 4B - We also issued four newsletters during this reporting period. Our newsletters offer more NERCRD-generated content than the "events and opportunities" emails, including research and outreach updates. We have made modest gains in the numbers of subscribers, but lately we have focused efforts on increasing our social media presence to get timely announcements out to broader audiences. To this end, we launched a LinkedIn account in July and look forward to engaging with new audiences there. We also have continued working with a third party on the development of a new NERCRD website, which is nearing completion and which we expect to launch publicly in Fall 2023. The new website will be easier to navigate and manage. In collaboration with the other RRDC communications staff, we are attempting to establish new pathways for efficiently reaching potential audiences at 1890s, 1994s, and other minority-serving institutions where there may not be dedicated community and economic development faculty but whose work certainly intersects with the mission of the RRDCs. Objective 4C - We closed out the year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary with a multi-page feature in our 2022 Annual Report, which provides a permanent record of the many ways in which the RRDCs recognized and amplified this important anniversary (see Products).
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Chase, Lisa, Natalie Chin, and Xinyi Qian, eds. 2022. National Extension Tourism 2021 Conference Proceedings. Kansas City: Extension Foundation. https://extensiontourism.net/wp-content/uploads/2021NETProceedings.10-4-2022.pdf.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Entsminger, Jason, Luyi Han, and Stephan J. Goetz. 2022. Impacts of COVID-19 on Northeast Economic Activity. 2201. NERCRD COVID-19 Data Brief. Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/publications/covid-19-issues-briefs/covid-impacts-northeast-economic-activity.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Han, Luyi, Anil Rupasingha, Stephan J. Goetz, and Yuxuan Pan. 2023. Impact of Community Reinvestment Act on Minority and Female Employment Growth. AgEcon Search. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/335703?ln=en.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
NERCRD. 2022a. NERCRD Newsletter, September 2022 Edition, September 13, 2022. https://mailchi.mp/6067084171cb/nercrd-news-september-2022-6099551.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
NERCRD. 2022b. Events, Opportunities, and Resources, Late September 2022 Edition, September 26, 2022. https://mailchi.mp/e45bb4cdbc9a/events-opportunities-september-2022-6100315.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
NERCRD. 2022c. Events, Opportunities, and Resources, November 2023 Edition, Volume 1, November 10, 2022. https://mailchi.mp/dafaec790fe1/events-and-opportunities-november-22-edition-6127827.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
NERCRD. 2022d. Events, Opportunities, and Resources, November 2023 Edition, Volume 2, November 22, 2022. https://mailchi.mp/54cb85a7f4bc/events-and-opportunities-november-22-edition-6170311
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
NERCRD. 2022e. NERCRD Newsletter, 2022 Year-End Edition, December 2, 2022. https://mailchi.mp/fd547692f29e/nercrd-year-end-newsletter-2022-6257295.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
NERCRD 2022 Annual Report. 2023. https://aese.psu.edu/nercrd/publications/annual-report.
|
Progress 09/01/21 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 National Extension Tourism Leadership Team has received technical assistance and training in marketing and communications, strategic planning, partnership development, and organizational leadership. Center staff who supported the NET-NTAE project also experienced the project-accelerator process engaged by NTAE, which certainly will inform their future work supporting new networks. The presentations and papers authored by NERCRD researchers have provided learning opportunities to a countless number of audience members and readers across multiple disciplines. 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 Listening Session effort and communicating results to federal partners and other stakeholders. 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. NERCRD Associate Director Entsminger provided briefings on Listening Session findings to numerous audiences, including USDA NIFA, NACDEP, AAEA, Northeast FCS and 4-H program leaders. We also engaged the facilitators of the National Topic Sessions to provide rapid debrief of those sessions' outcomes for NIFA personnel. 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 National Extension Tourism effort 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?While the listening sessions were funded separately, there is an ongoing need for outreach and dissemination (including our collaboration with CFARE and the Federal Reserve Bank) that will continue after the special separate funding runs out. In addition, the listening sessions generated several ideas that require further research.One example is the role of broadband in supporting self-employment in different sectors in rural areas. We will explore this using American Community Survey data through the Research Data Center.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Economic Development, Resilience, and Innovation Research and Outreach (a) We continue to explore in ongoing and planned research the determinants of rural innovation and its impacts. For example, we are in the process of initiating research to understand the impact of access to credit on the ability of women- and minority-owned businesses to implement new ideas in their businesses. Related to this is research on the availability of credit at the county-level. Other research examines the role of innovation in supporting rural economies by increasing export competitiveness. (b) While our signature food system project, Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast (EFSNE), formally closed several years ago, it continues to inform our ongoing research program in food supply chains. For example, with two postdocs that were trained at NERCRD as part of the EFSNE project, we recently examined the issue of how to optimize the locations of supply-chain facilities for fresh produce supplies in the U.S. and put forth a mathematical model that improves the effectiveness of facility location solutions. The model, which was published in the International Journal of Production Economics, expands possibilities for new research on assessing the reliability of facility location in various scenarios, e.g., climate-change induced shifts in production locations. In ongoing research, we are studying population threshold numbers needed to support different numbers of breweries, distilleries, and wineries. This information is helpful for local planners both in terms identifying opportunities for expansion and for knowing when additional establishments start to cut into sales of existing businesses. We are also studying the growing roles of agritourism-related and direct sales of food by farmers to consumers in shortening agricultural supply chains, as demand for such direct sales has expanded during the covid pandemic. (c) The separately funded national Listening Session effort implemented by the RRDCs and described in detail in prior-year funding reports, provided communities and decision makers with an in-depth understanding as to what rural stakeholders view as priorities for rural recovery post-COVID, and where there are gaps in capacities to address those priorities. Findings from our preliminary analysis have been shared with key stakeholder audiences, and the forthcoming report will be shared widely by the RRDCs and partners. We will pursue collaborative efforts in implementing these activities. (d) We continue our research exploring the determinants and consequences (if any) of female farm operations within counties. In one study we are evaluating how the share of female owned operations affects poverty rates and other socioeconomic measures of wellbeing, using spatial Bayesian dynamic modeling. In another we explore whether counties with more female operated farms also have fewer farm losses over time. Goal 2. Food Systems and Agriculture Research and Outreach (a) As partners on a separately funded USDA NIFA agritourism project led by C. Schmidt (Penn State), we provided research support aimed at examining the extent to which agritourism and direct sales activities are clustered geographically, and whether these activities detract from or reinforce one another, both within counties and across county lines. Preliminary findings suggest that they do reinforce each other within the same county, but results are mixed when looking at spillover effects across counties. (b) Schmidt presented these findings at the 2022 meeting of the Applied Agricultural Economics Association, and as the analysis progresses, we will develop other materials to share our findings. (c) This work is under way. 3. General Capacity Building As reported in prior-year funding reports, we have made considerable staff investments in supporting the development of the National Extension Tourism Network. Outcomes of our support include a new multi-state Hatch project and a new USDA NIFA funded project, both led by West Virginia University, that will examine tourism and resiliency through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. These projects integrate Extension and research and will enhance participants capacity to assist communities with managing and planning for tourism growth. In addition, providing leadership and administrative support to NET's participation in the New Technology for Agricultural Extension accelerator program, NERCRD has also continued to support the NET webinar series, which continues to serve as a knowledge-sharing platform for participants nationally. Goal 4. Communications (a) We continue to share resources and updates via regular emails to our stakeholders. These include resources from the RRDCs and partner organizations, professional development events, funding opportunities, and job announcements. We also maintain the National Extension Tourism listserv, so members of that network have a platform for sharing questions, ideas, and resources. The separately funded Listening Session effort resulted in several informational outputs, including a data dashboard developed in collaboration with UNH GIS expert, Shane Brandt. This dashboard allows users to view results from the national survey by region and by topic area. (b) NERCRD staff have been working on the transition of our communications platform from a listserv to an email marketing software (Mailchimp). The transition has not been without issues, but we expect the process to be completed later this year, at which point we will more easily monitor the list's growth. (c) NERCRD staff provided leadership to the RRDC communications team by organizing and hosting monthly meetings to plan for 50th anniversary publicity. We also organized a call between USDA RD, USDA NIFA, and the RRDCs to discuss how we can leverage one another's celebrations of the anniversary. With the other RRDCs, we engaged ECOP, ESCOP, NACDEP, and regional entities in recognizing with formal proclamations the critical role the RRDCs have played in rural development over the past 50 years. Also in collaboration with the RRDCs, we convened two special panel discussions: Fostering Development in Rural America in the next 50 years (NACDEP) Regional Rural Development Centers 50th Anniversary: The Past, Present, and Future of Building Rural Communities Through Collaboration (AAEA) We also engaged the services of a communications/marketing expert, who interviewed two key informants and developed testimonials of their experience working with NERCRD. We will use these as part of our 50th anniversary communications strategy.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Schmidt, C., & Schweichler, J. (2021, October 6). Agritourism across Pennsylvania Challenges and Opportunities. Penn State Extension Local Government Webinar Series, online.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Chase, Lisa, Natalie Chin, and Xinyi Qian(Eds.). (2022). 2021 National Extension Tourism Conference Proceedings. NERCRD.
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