West Virginia town with people enjoying a bike path and creek.

WVU Extension leads efforts to enhance sustainability of tourism in rural communities

This article by Hannah Booth (West Virginia University Division for Land-Grant Engagement) highlights the Tourism, Resiliency and Indicators for Post-Pandemic Planning (TRIP) project and a recently published study by the TRIP project team. NERCRD Director Stephan Goetz, Associate Director Stephen Alessi, and Faculty Affiliate Luyi Han are members of the project team. The TRIP project is led by WVU’s Doug Arbogast, who is also a member of the NERCRD Technical Advisory Committee.

 

Goetz named vice-chair of Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE) Board of Directors

Stephan Goetz, the director of the Northeast Center, was named vice-chair of the Board of Directors of C-FARE earlier this month. Goetz has served on the Board since 2014, and on the organization’s Blue Ribbon Experts Panel since 2011.

Adding grads and going green can brighten economic outlook

Attracting college graduates and boosting natural amenities may give communities a double shot of economic growth potential, according to a new peer-reviewed study by economists at the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development and California State University, Fresno.

Featured faculty: Matt Kaplan — seeing the silver lining in the “silver tsunami”

Communities throughout the region and the nation are bracing themselves for what some are calling the “silver tsunami” — the coming wave of baby boomers who will be entering old age. To Matt Kaplan — a professor of intergenerational programs and aging in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Education, and Sociology at Penn State — the “silver tsunami” can be a golden opportunity for communities.

University of Maine’s “Recipe to Market” program offers cross-disciplinary training to new food entrepreneurs

During the NERCRD’s 2014 “What Works” conference, Louis Bassano presented “From Recipe to Market: Helping Specialty Food Entrepreneurs Add Value to Their Agricultural Products.” We caught up with Bassano and his University of Maine colleagues to learn and share more about their program. Watch for more conference highlights in future issues of our newsletter.