The US Northeast’s agricultural and rural areas face challenges ranging from land use conflict to climate change, environmental concerns and lagging economic development, accentuated recently by the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. These regions also have significant opportunities to contribute to the nation’s prosperity and food supply, sustainability of the environment, and societal equity and justice (Mitchell et al., 2023), but more research is needed to identify specific, place-based feasible and sustainable strategies to realize these opportunities.

The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development provides research-based information that helps create regional prosperity through entrepreneurial and cluster-based innovation, while assuring balanced uses of natural resources in livable communities in the northeastern United States. We carry out our mission by conducting original research with collaborators, pursuing strategic partnerships with public and private entities, and linking our stakeholders to opportunities and resources; we also compile and disseminate research-based outreach materials through a variety of formats. We serve as a hub that connects researchers and Extension educators across state borders and topic areas. Our work is motivated by the continuing challenges rural areas face both in the region as well as nationally. In essence, supporting NERCRD is an investment in the resilience and prosperity of the Northeast's rural populations, contributing to sustainable economic growth and improved quality of life for residents.

The need for the research proposed here has been indicated by stakeholders ranging from the leadership of the land grant universities in the Northeast to individual campus-based faculty and county-based educators, as well as by government and nonprofit or private sector partners. Specific sources of input include: the Center’s Technical Advisory Committee, which advises the Board of Directors; the results of comprehensive listening sessions on rural economic recovery from Covid-19 conducted by the four Regional Rural Development Centers on behalf of USDA-NIFA (Entsminger et al., 2023); the Northeast Agenda – A Joint Vision for the Future of the Northeast (Mitchell et al., 2023) prepared by the Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Stations (NERA) and the Northeast Extension Directors (NEED); and other stakeholders including national program leaders at NIFA, the Economic Research and Forest Services, USDA Rural Development, and the NSF’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.

Importance of the work: Providing research-based information to address the problems facing the Northeast is critical if taxpayer funds are to be put to their most cost-effective uses in addressing societal problems. If the work is not carried out communities and individuals will not have the opportunity to develop a complete and research-based understanding of the factors that support or impede growth of minority and female entrepreneurship, or the factors that support or impede tourism and agritourism development with sustainable beneficial impacts for the local communities where they are based; the factors that support decarbonization, innovation and the transition to renewable energy along with their impacts for different kinds of rural communities; historical crop production patterns and their shifts over time in order to predict future production prospects including implications for the spatial distribution of nutrient dense foods, with implications for population health.

Technical feasibility: as documented in the section below on Related, Current and Previous Work, the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development has a proven track record of successfully completing the kinds of projects proposed here. As such, the feasibility of achieving the objectives is not in question.

Given the region-covering nature of the issues addressed, and limited faculty and educator resources at individual experiment stations in the region, taking a regional approach in a multi-state effort that draws on the expertise of collaborators in the different states represents a critical advantage.

Expected impacts of successful completion of this work include more-informed decision makers at all levels of government as well as individuals, farmers and businessowners throughout the region in different industries who make economic decisions about sustainable and profitable resource allocations every day. In turn, we expect to see more resilient, vibrant, and sustainable businesses, farms, and local economies over time, with more strategic federal and private investments that benefit from higher economic and social returns, including healthier populations and more equitable socioeconomic outcomes across different ethnic groups and across gender.