RISA project associate Jonda Crosby discusses food issues with R. Duane Perry, executive director of the Reading Terminal Farmers' Market Trust. Crosby coordinates educational activities and helps improve connections among food-related organizations in southeastern Pennsylvania.

"Farmers and consumers also need to better understand how they relate to one another," Smith adds. "Sadly, feelings of disconnection seem to be intensifying." In 1993, Penn State and Rodale Institute researchers asked more than 1,200 consumers at 23 supermarkets and farmers' markets in southeastern Pennsylvania about social, economic, and environmental aspects of agriculture in the region. "These consumers had only a limited understanding of how food is produced and how farms influence the economy and the environment," says Joan Thomson who studies the impact of communications on food systems. "Nearly 80 percent believed that farming is important to the region's economy, and nearly 60 percent thought that southeastern Pennsylvania needs local farms because the region cannot always rely on getting food from other places. But less than 30 percent believed that children of today's farmers are likely to continue farming. People don't seem to consider what will happen in the future if no one in the area wants to farm."

Consumers in southeastern Pennsylvania do realize they affect the food system. More than 80 percent of those surveyed believed their food purchases influence farming in their region and what products are sold locally. "Seventy-five percent said they would like to buy locally grown produce," says Thomson. "But for convenience, 60 percent preferred to buy fruits and vegetables at the supermarket, where much of the produce is not grown in the region, or even in the state or nation. Consumers are key participants in the food system, but our study suggests that they don't think very much about agriculture, and they don't get involved in food policy decisions. Even people living in one of the nation's richest agricultural regions don't understand how food is produced or the social and economic structure we need to continue producing food locally. We have to do a better job of tying food issues to people's daily lives."

RISA's project directors and stakeholders now are developing strategies to help address some of the challenges that have been identified. "Do we really want to live in a Pennsylvania where farming is just a memory?" Smith asks. "Despite the challenges, agriculture remains a vital regional force, and people want to keep it that way. I believe we have only about a five-year window of opportunity to save our farm sector. RISA is a leader ship community that is committed to sustaining and strengthening the region's farms through innovation and cooperation. One group is developing a program to give urban children farm experiences. Another group is creating a regional food system homepage on the World Wide Web, which could create business opportunities as more people use the Internet. If a restaurant needs fresh mushrooms, for example, it might easily find local producers to fill orders with the click of a computer mouse.

As director of the Food Bank of the State College Area, Pam Santavicca has seen the food access problems faced by some residents of the commonwealth.

RISA brings together people and institutions that normally might be across the fence from one another but are united by a common goal. "There is a great deal of respect among participants, even when they have philosophical disagreements," says project associate Jonda Crosby, who coordinates RISA's educational activities from the Penn State Cooperative Extension office in Berks County. "In part, we are a networking center that improves connections among food-related organizations. For instance, we've been able to help our partners better understand cooperative extension, and this has resulted in extension educational materials on food and nutrition reaching new audiences through the Reading Terminal Farmers' Market. We've held farm field days to help consumers and farmers understand the relationships between them, because as much as the consumer has been removed from agricultural production, the farmer too has been separated from the larger food system. We've found that producers also need information on new methods and ideas, so our on-farm team demonstrates innovative approaches to nutrient management, intensive grazing, water quality, and pest control. We've helped farmers with similar goals and interests to form farm practice improvement study circles, where they share information, concepts, and experiences."

To boost regional farm profitability, RISA's marketing team helped spur the creation of two producer-only farmers' markets. Located in Lancaster and Chester counties, these markets supply suburban communities with produce grown exclusively by regional farmers. The team also helped the Reading Terminal Farmers' Market Trust create a loading dock distribution center to help growers directly market fruit and vegetables to vendors and establish community markets to increase the supply of fresh produce for inner-city Philadelphians.

Different viewpoints and conflicting goals–such as wanting to keep farming profitable while protecting natural resources and keeping food prices low–complicate the process of finding common ground when envisioning the future of the region's food system. "In RISA focus groups, farmers expressed frustration over being taken for granted," Smith says. "They feel beleaguered and unappreciated. Several said they almost wished the public would go hungry occasionally so that consumers would wake up and gain an appreciation for agriculture. Yet misperceptions and gaps in awareness affect all parts of the food system, including farm and agribusiness leaders.

For instance, even though Pennsylvania has very real food access problems, more than half of the agribusiness leaders RISA surveyed disagreed with the statement, 'Some residents may have problems obtaining access to food.' Only 55 percent of these leaders rated food cost and accessibility issues as having a great deal of interest, and more than half scored themselves low on knowledge about food problems faced by limited-resource households and conditions that affect access to food."