Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Center project pays dividends for Iowa farmers and communities

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By CORRY BREGENDAHL, Assistant Scientist

How often do your area farmers or farm-based business owners get together with their direct competitors, government regulators, food processors, food distributors, retailers, restaurant owners, technical service providers, non-profit supporters, local elected officials, health providers, Extension staff, food service directors, school administrators and others to consider the hot local issues in food and agriculture? Probably not very often, but this is precisely what happens on a regular basis for the participants in the Leopold Center’s Value Chain Partnerships (VCP) project.

VCP beginnings

VCP is an Iowa-based network of food and agriculture working groups. It began in 2002 with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and matching support from the Leopold Center and Iowa State University; additional support came from the Wallace Center for Sustainable Agriculture in 2006. VCP has evolved since then with the shifting of existing working groups and the creation of new groups. The Value Chain Partnerships project now includes six working groups:

  • Pork Niche Markets (2001)
  • Regional Food Systems (2003)
  • Small Meat Processors (2006)
  • Fruit and Vegetables (2006)
  • Food Access and Health (2010)
  • Grass-based Livestock (2008)

The groups work together and separately to address issues in agriculture based on their respective missions. Coordinating their formation, funding and maintenance has been no easy task, and has required cooperation, human and financial resources, commitment and more than a few open minds. Yet evaluation shows that project partners say it’s been worth it. A concept used in guiding VCP working group activities is the community of practice model. Working groups are encouraged to attract people who share a concern for a set of problems and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.

Assessing original groups

Recent evaluations of the first four working groups show that VCP and its partners have become respected leaders statewide. VCP’s role in strengthening the position of food and farming enterprises has focused on knitting together enclaves or islands of previously unconnected people, groups and activities, thereby creating a culture of collaboration. The working groups and local partners collectively have leveraged nearly $2 million, as well as many hours of in-kind time, to support their efforts. Cumulative meeting attendance in these four working groups is in excess of 650 people, with average attendance for one group rising from 36 in its early years to 86 in 2009.

Impacts of the work have been heartening. From 2006-2008, four local groups involved in the Regional Food Systems Working Group covering 27 counties collectively increased local food sales by nearly $1 million. These groups also measured substantial increases in the number of producers selling local food to local businesses, the number of local businesses buying and/or selling local food, and the amount of seed money these groups were able to award to local food-based businesses and farmers in their geographic area. In the Pork Niche Market Working Group, two direct competitors decided to share truck space taking their products to market, saving them tens of thousands of dollars.

Other benefits are apparent as well. Partners in the working groups report they are spending more of their time on local and regional food work than they did a year ago; their organization is changing organizational policies and guidelines to better support such work; they either initiated or participated in new collaborations or projects as a result of working group participation and the act of partnering with others has helped them connect their work with public policy change.

Positive policy changes include the creation of “buy local” purchasing policies, changes in enforcement of state regulations that formerly limited health facility purchases of local food, creation of a county-based food policy council and local food coordinator and school participation in food systems work.

The future

Evaluation of VCP shows that the community of practice model has been effective at engaging partners all along the value chain. The regular interaction breaks down real or perceived barriers, builds trust and prompts collaboration. Collaboration builds credibility for the work at local, regional and state levels, which attracts new partners and resources. It also generates considerable interest in replicating the model in new places, which leads to new opportunities and challenges for the people doing the work. The working group model was so successful at bringing people together and creating opportunities in food and agriculture that two additional groups outside the project have been formed with assistance or leadership from the Leopold Center. They are the Farm Energy Working Group and the Mid-American Agroforestry Working Group.

Back to Leopold Letter Summer 2010