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About PARN

Schipanski et al. (2016) defines food system resiliency as...

“The capacity of people to produce and access nutritious and culturally acceptable food over time and space in the face of disturbance and change."‍

Today, food system resiliency is threatened by bottlenecks in our food supply chain, particularly with respect to harvest, processing and transportation. Recent fluctuations in commodity prices and production inefficiencies have had a particularly strong impact on Pennsylvania’s (PA) small producers, dairies, and farm workers, which lack the cash flow to withstand these disturbances.

Indeed, the risks of deleterious effects on agricultural from COVID-19 are quite real, and numerous countries are adapting by addressing farm worker availability, providing aid packages and/or supporting non-traditional grow operations. While these are important steps to take, they will be inadequate to the challenge at hand without effective coordination tools.

The goal of PARN is to rapidly scale-up an open source platform that connects producers, suppliers, manufacturers, and workers along PA’s food supply chain, thus minimizing bottlenecks. Our platform can reach a diverse group of stakeholders to provide urgently needed support now, while also building infrastructure for a more resilient regional food economy over the long term.

PARN was funded in April 2020 by the Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science (Penn State, College of Agricultural Sciences)
PARN was conceived of by:
  • Dr. Patrick Drohan (PI), Dept. of Ecosystem Science and Management;Associate Professor Pedology
  • Mr. Mike Anderson (co-PI), coder.
  • Dr. Anil Kumar Chaudhary (co-PI), Dept. of Agricultural Economics,Sociology, and Education; Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Extension Education
  • Dr. Robert Chiles (co-PI), Dept. of Agricultural Economics,Sociology, and Education & Food Science & Rock Ethics Institute; Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology; Research Associate, Rock Ethics Institute
  • Dr. Juliana Vasco-Correa (co-PI), Dept. of Agricultural and Biological Engineering; Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.
  • Dr. Heather Karsten (co-PI), Plant Sciences Dept.; Associate Professor of Crop Production / Ecology
  • Dr. Claudia Schmidt (co-PI), Dept. of Agricultural Economics,Sociology, and Education; Assistant Professor of Marketing and Local/Regional Food Systems
  • Professor Jennifer Weld (co-PI), Director PAOneStop, Ecosystem Science and Management; Assistant Research Professor
  • National Center for Appropriate technology Team (NCAT)(co-PIs) Steve Thompson (NCAT, Executive Director); Lee Rinehart (NCAT, Sustainable Agriculture Specialist); Devona Bell (NCAT, SARC Program Director); Andy Pressman (NCAT, Northeast Reg. Office Director)
  • PASA team (co-PIs) Hanna Smith-Brubaker (PASA, Executive Director); Christina Kostelecky (Systems Analyst and Change Analyst); Franklin Egan (PASA,Dir. Of Education)
  • Greg Boulos (Blackberry Meadows Farm, Farm Corps) (Co-PI)       
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