9 pages, To understand environmental conditions Pennsylvania agricultural producers had observed in the past and what their environmental concerns were for the future, we conducted a statewide survey. We used Spearman rank order correlations to show differences between past observations and future concerns regarding environmental conditions and found a disconnect between what respondents previously had observed and their anticipations for the future. Additionally, we used chi-square analysis to determine whether perspectives on environmental conditions were related to producer demographic characteristics. Two demographic variables were significant: generation of farmer and political affiliation. Our findings can assist Extension professionals in developing programs tailored to target audiences' environmental perceptions and demographics.
12 pages, eOrganic, the Organic Agriculture Community of eXtension, has conducted webinars on organic farming research for over a decade. I examined questions asked by farmers and university researchers or educators during 52 webinars presented 2015–2017. A higher proportion of questions asked by farmers than questions asked by researchers/educators were about risks, benefits, and problem solving, and the farmers' questions contained many innovative ideas about production. A higher proportion of researcher/educator questions than farmer questions related to details of research studies, though farmers also posed questions about research methods. This article contains suggestions about tailoring research presentations to farmer audiences and confirms the mutual benefits of collaborations between farmers and researchers.
9 pages, Social media has been recognized as a powerful tool supporting communication of many topics in the agriculture industry. We explored the use of social media platforms among farmers market managers and specialty crop growers in Illinois through an online survey. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were platforms used by the majority of respondents. We found that social media was used primarily for communicating with consumers for marketing purposes. We identified major training needs of farmers market stakeholders related to using social media to promote business and convey food safety information.