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The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development will continue to build on the successes of the previous year outlined in the Annual Report 2011, and implement the programs and activities approved by the Center's Board of Directors. Increasingly, the leadership of NERA and NEED is also seeking out the Center and asking us to contribute to new regional initiatives. We will continue to network with and draw upon the advice of the newly constituted Technical Advisory Committee. We will leverage and document the Center's impact in the area of community capacity building, and extend knowledge acquired in these areas to colleagues and collaborators within the region. We will focus on three key subject matter areas, which align with the priorities of NERA and NEED as well as USDA/NIFA as follows: entrepreneurship and job creation, including within the green economy (NIFA priority 3); community, local and regional food systems, including their relationships to childhood obesity, food safety, food access and capacity to feed the region and world (NIFA priorities 1, 4 and 5); and land use and balanced use of natural resources, by addressing trade-offs between alternative forms of energy use and development, invasive species, and other issues (NIFA priority 2).1 The Center's relevance is evident from the fact that the Director has been invited to make presentations at two different regional meetings convened by NERA and NEED, held in Beltsville, MD: one on local and regional foods and the other on invasive species. He was also invited to present at a Federal Reserve Bank national conference. The project focuses on local and regional issues that, working collaboratively through the other RRDCs, also have a national impact. The Center is providing capacity-building expertise in designing and analyzing farm-level surveys and in conducting network analyses, through competitively-funded NIFA grants. With the recent re-launching of USDA's Know Your Food - Know Your Farmer campaign, we will expand our efforts to apply economic, social network and value chain analysis to small and medium-sized farms and their distribution systems in the region. We will draw both on theoretical advances as well as applied research on consumer choice and evaluation of multi-functional agriculture; the most recent work in this area places a value on consumers' willingness to pay for an agriculture with broader functions. As a contribution to family and consumer sciences, and to improve our understanding of food deserts, we will study the determinants of different kinds of grocery stores in different communities.
<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development will focus on three key subject matter areas, which align with the priorities of NERA and NEED as well as USDA-NIFA: entrepreneurship and job creation; community, local and regional food systems; and land use and balanced use of natural resources. The national Stronger Economies Together (SET) initiative has been expanded to NY as well as NH/VT, where educators, faculty and federal RD staff are cooperating in delivering regional strategic programming to competitively-selected multi-county communities. This growing effort is part of the national initiative that has been funded by USDA/Rural Development, and it is one example of the Center's capacity to bring together a variety of public and private sector stake-holders in achieving critical objectives. The insights gained from this national
effort are providing important lessons for future regional development strategy, and it is solidifying our network of key collaborators in the field. Lackluster employment growth continues to plague many rural communities. Further, recognition is growing that the federal government has essentially exhausted monetary and fiscal policy options at this time. This implies that entrepreneurship and self-employment may be one of the few -- if not only -- bright spots on the horizon, and we will invest heavily in understanding and documenting both the determinants of self-employment as well as the wider economic impacts within communities. We have also demonstrated that small local firms (i.e., independent entrepreneurs) are essentially the best if not only source of local economic growth, compared to big box stores. The fact that the NE Extension leadership (and USDA) is discussing the idea of
networks within local food systems is strong evidence that the Center's work is having an impact in the region that will eventually filter down to educators within counties. Thus, in terms of shorter-term learning activities we expect to continue to see greater awareness among key stakeholders and decision-makers of the challenges and science-based solutions related to the forces and opportunities shaping the sustainability and profitability of agricultural and local food systems in the Northeast US. We also expect to see a better understanding and greater awareness emerge among decision-makers of the importance of self-employment and entrepreneurship within their communities; this also means reduced emphasis on industrial recruitment. The Center's recent work on the impact of small firms has attracted the attention of various media outlets and is being disseminated through these kinds
of venues in addition to conventional pathways (conferences, webinars, etc.). We also expect, eventually, that there will be fewer false business starts; more knowledge regarding business potential; and greater interest in rural areas (including especially among youth) in self-employment and small business creation. Leaders within rural communities and colleague-stakeholders within the land grant system will have access to timely, science-based educational resources through our website and other vehicles (e.g., webinars).
<p>APPROACH:<br/> The NERCRD external review conducted by CSREES identified four distinct but complementary models that the Center could follow or apply as methods and procedures in the various issues areas. These continue to guide us in our work. Specifically, the Center: produces and disseminates research with no explicit Extension products; produces and disseminates research and produces Extension products; organizes initial and follow-up convenings that lead to Center commissioned and disseminated best practice Extension products; and sees the potential of developing Extension products from others' work, whether research or Extension, within the region or not, and commissions and disseminates Extension products. Concrete examples of each of the above are available from the Center upon request. The following general procedures will be used. The Center will: (1) Conduct,
promote and extend through outreach both think tank-level and peer-reviewed studies of agricultural development, entrepreneurship, land use and community vitality, including work that addresses farm industry clusters and local/regional food systems development. This effort will receive a major boost once the Policy Research Center is functional, with two post-docs and faculty-consultant collaborators. (2) Organize and sponsor multi-disciplinary and multi-state educational efforts in the areas of community development impact assessment, entrepreneurship, balanced land use and vibrant and sustainable communities; as part of this, the Center will continue to expand its website as a tool for furthering the mission of the land grant system in the Northeast in community development. A transition to a new Content Management System will occur over this funding period; and (3) Continue to fulfill
its other multiple networking responsibilities through strategic partnerships, conference calls, maintenance of listservs, conference participation, publications and by identifying leading edge programs that can be shared across the states (and nationally) via Webinars so as to reduce duplication of effort.
<p>PROGRESS: 2012/07 TO 2013/07<br/>Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The Center supports a dedicated graduate student, leveraging in-kind tuition funds from the College of Agricultural Sciences. This student works closely with the Center Director and receives training on regional economic and related modeling. An undergraduate student intern is being exposed to projects and activities at partner institutions in the Northeast region. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? In addition to publications and reports, and the webinar, key results have been make available to the Center�s newsletter subscriber base, which exceeds 800 individuals. They will also be adopted in on-line classes in Summer 2014. Key results also
were presented to the leadership of the land grant university system in the Northeast (NERA, NEED) as well as to stakeholders in Washington, DC. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue with this work over the next reporting period. This includes leading and carrying out work on the grants that have been obtained by the Northeast Center. Another national webinar will take place, and a national conference is planned for May 2014 in collaboration with the National Value Added Group, to be held in Baltimore, MD. We also will continue to conduct needed research and submit resulting papers for publication and presentation consideration.