RISA Unites
(Continued from Pago A2l)
Schettini and associate core
team member Jonda L. Crosby.
RISA project associate at the
Berks County Cooperative Exten
sion, are helping to guide a $2 mil
lion ($1 million from Kellogg and
another $1 million in matching
funds). 3V4 -year, 23-member pro
ject to its ambitious goal—that of
setting up contacts with farmers
and community leaders to ensure
that agriculture remains a viable,
powerful economic force in the
10-county southeastern Pennsyl
vania region.
“What is the common language
of all the groups?” said Crosby.
“It’s there. You just really have to
dig for it.”
Crosby, Schettini, and others in
the 23-member group, including a
consortium involving SANRUE
and PASA, Atlantic Dairy
Cooperative, League of Women
Voters, and the Reading Terminal
Farmers’ Market Trust, have held
a series of meetings involving 120
people from various industries and
associations. Included were mark
eting professionals, policy makers,
support professionals, and con
sumers. Forty-seven of those
attending were fanners.
One of the purpose of the meet
ings is to assess the needs of
farmers.
One survey conducted by RISA
measured some of the long-term
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concerns and goals of dairy far
mers. With the help of the Atlantic
Dairy Cooperative. 1,400
questionnaires were mailed out
About 500 were returned.
"That’s a phenominal return
rate.” said Schettini.
“The key is to get them to tell
you everything they possibly
can,” said Crosby. “Once they are
comfortable and start talking, you
wouldn’t belive the similarities
between the focus groups.”
Crosby spoke about how much
“passion” the responses con
tained. The information, according
to Schettini. is still being analyzed,
coded, and documented. It will be
available, according to Rochelle
Kelvin, project leader with
Rodale’s Metro-Farmer Networks,
in early August this year.
Also,-a vegetable survey, sent to
about 400 producers in the state, is
under analysis. The results will be
available in a few months.
For now, the focus of RISA is on
obtaining information about far
mers ’ needs and to focus
information-gathering on what the
public’s perceptions of farming
are.
For that, a survey was con
ducted to examine consumers’ atti
tudes about “farm-fresh*’ pro
duce. Information about product
availability and impressions were
also provided by more than 1,400
people at 23 different supermark-
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In the long run, according to the
core team members, RISA will
help focus attention on the huge
market available here for produce
and other farmers.
RISA wants to find out “why
the market is being served dispro
portionately from California or
Mexico or Florida or wherever,”
Schettini said.
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ets in the region. Data will be
released by RISA later this year.
One of the ways RISA has made
its presence known and has had an
immediate effect on local farming
is through the creation of addition
al outlets throughout the city of
Philadelphia from one of the RISA
partners, the Reading Terminal
Farmers’ Market Trust The Trust
has created direct marketing agree
ments with produce farmers in the
region.
“There are certain neighbor
hoods in Philadelphia, particularly
around housing projects, where
there is not adequate access to
fresh produce,” said Schettini.
Two more locations were added in
the city, home to about five million
people, to bring fresh produce to
inner-city residents.
The “master report” of all the
RISA activities, including what
influence the information has had
on planning community reaction
and regulations, will be docu
mented and made available to the
public. The format, according to
Schettini, will be “user-friendly.”
And finally, at the community
level, the information has to be
accessible and used, said Crosby.
“We’re asking the community
to guide us on how we should best
use the money that Kellogg has
given to us, rather than us saying
this is the way it should be done,”
said Crosby.
RIS A is also looking for propos
als from dairy and vegetable far
mers for on-farm research or
demonstrations “that address an
aspect of sustaining agriculture,”
said Leon Weber, Rodale Institute.
Issues such as nutrient manage
ment, marketing, intensive graz
ing, water quality, soil improve
ment, pest control, farm manage
ment, and alternative crops will be
considered.
RISA will provide some techni
cal and financial support to the
project, according to Weber.
Deadline for proposals for projects
to begin this fall iS July 20. Propos
als for projects that begin in 1995
are due by October 1.
Proposals can be obtained from
Jonda Crosby at the Berks County
Historic Schaefferstown Inc.
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378-1135.
According to the core team, the
spirit of the RIS A project, once the
research and documentation are
complete, will continue in the rela
tionships fostered.
“They‘ll probably continue to
talk,” said Crosby. “It’s not going
to stop. The rings will stay in
place.”
One result could be a farm
changing from one commodity to
another to meet the needs of the
community.
A potential use of the RISA
information is about how legisla
tors make regulations, such as
regarding nutrient management,
how agencies create water use
fees, or how townships create ordi
nances. The more the lawmakers
know about farming, in general,
according to the core members, the
better the laws could be for
farmers.
‘ ‘lf that is the only thing it does,
then it will be successful,” said
Crosby. “If that one single thing
happens, I would be ecstatic.”
Ivania'