Yes, Penn State University provides access to knowledge, skills, or technology about food security, sustainable agriculture, and sustainable aquaculture to local farmers and food producers through:

• Penn State Agricultural Extension – A variety of sustainable agriculture programs share skills and knowledge to all 67 counties across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
• The Student Farm offers community outreach and engagement programs to provide diverse opportunities for engagement with sustainability challenges and solutions in food and agricultural systems. The annual Harvest Festival brings together more than a 1,000 people to the farm. In addition, the Student Farm hosts regular webinars
• The Penn State Campus Gardens website provides information about gardens on campuses across the state that aim to educate the campus about our food system and engage the local community in the process.
• Penn State College of Agricultural Science – Ag Progress Days is an annual event that showcases new programs/technology for sustainable agriculture.
• The Symposium on Emergency Food Resilience – this annual event is free and open to campus and community to learn about the latest research on the topic.
• Research – Access to food security and sustainable agriculture knowledge has been made available to a local and global audience by Penn State professors. 2023 publication examples include:
  • Adverse childhood experiences and food insecurity in emerging adulthood: Findings from the EAT 2010-2018 study was published in the journal Nutritional Sciences
  • Do youth conceptualizations influence the inclusion of young people in sustainable agriculture intensification? Insights from Ghana and Malawi was published in the journal Environment, Development and Sustainability
  • Factors associated with food insecurity among the chronically ill population during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States was published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health
  • Maximizing duckweed biomass production for food security at low light intensities: Experimental results and an enhanced predictive model was published in the journal Environmental Challenges
  • Nutritious Supplemental Foods for Pregnant Women from Food Insecure Settings: Types, Nutritional Composition, and Relationships to Health Outcomes was published in the journal Nutritional Sciences
• 2022 publication examples include:
  • Food insecurity is associated with higher food responsiveness in low-income children: The moderating role of parent stress and family functioning was published in the journal Nutritional Science
  • Farmers’ Perception of Climate Change and Its Impacts on Agriculture was published in the journal Hydrology.
  • Meeting global challenges with regenerative agriculture producing food and energy was published in the Journal Nature Sustainability

 

Learn more about Penn State’s progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals HERE and on SDG 2 HERE.