W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant helps launch new marketing and food systems program

By Laura Miller

Newsletter editor

After a summer that began with unseasonably warm temperatures and searing budget cuts, news of a $100,000 grant for an exciting new Iowa project fell like a gentle spring rain at the Leopold Center.

The Leopold Center will coordinate a one-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan for a new food systems project. Announced in late July, the grant was one of eight awarded as part of a new program in the Kellogg Foundation's Food and Society Initiative. Cooperators on the project include Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), Iowa State University Extension, and the Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture at ISU.

Although the Kellogg grant will not be used to make up for legislative cuts in the Leopold Center budget, it launches a promising project, "Value Chains for a Sustainable Agriculture." The goal of the project is to build a new food supply network -- from producer to processor to retailer -- for sustainably raised Iowa foods.

"This grant comes at a time when many things are happening in alternative food supply networks," said Rich Pirog, chair of the project's coordination team and leader of the Center's marketing initiative. "We hope this project can illustrate that universities, agencies and nonprofit organizations can work with farmers and industry leaders to foster additional successful value chains rooted in sustainable agriculture."

Health and environmental concerns among consumers are creating new market opportunities in the food and agriculture sector, said PFI director Robert Karp, another member of the project coordination team. "This grant will help Iowa tap these markets so that our farmers reap the rewards in premiums for their products, and our rural communities remain economically viable."

In fact, some of the work has already begun. During the first few months, one of the grant's major activities will be support for the fledgling Pork Niche Market Working Group (PNMWG).

The working group was created after a September 2001 marketing conference. The group quickly gained participants from nearly 30 organizations and $40,000 in start-up funds to begin work and hire a half-time coordinator in February 2002. The group is working on markets for hogs raised under specific standards of animal welfare, and environmental and community stewardship.

Approximately $27,000 in funds from the Kellogg grant is targeted for research and development needs identified by the PNMWG work teams and individuals within the PNMWG. Five new projects using these funds are scheduled to begin in October. The team selected the projects from among nine proposals for work totaling more than $51,000.

The PNMWG also received $23,000 that was part of a Farmer's Union grant funded by USDA Rural Development's Rural Business Enterprise Grant program. The funds will be used to develop a pre-feasibility analysis to supply a premium pork product for food service distributors including SYSCO Corporation, North America's largest food service distributor, to be tested in an upper Midwest pilot market.

Other Kellogg grant funds will help with coordination and evaluation of the PNMWG, as well as its communications activities, including production of a bimonthly newsletter, the PNMWG Update. Zack Smith, a senior majoring in agronomy at Iowa State University, has been hired part-time to help organize meetings, manage project files and make posters and charts for the project. Smith is housed at the Leopold Center while the PNMWG's coordinator, Gary Huber, works at PFI offices.

Although initial activities in the food systems project have focused on new markets for hogs, organizers hope to explore other areas. According to Iowa State University Extension specialist Jill Euken, a third member of the project coordination team, preliminary supply chain investigations have begun in organic dairy and poultry, biofuels, and grass-fed meats.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 "to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health, food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Losotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe.

Student intern Zack Smith	PNMWG coordinator Gary Huber

The PNMWG Update

The first issue of PNMWG Update is off the press. If you want to be on the mailing list, contact Todd Kimm, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Box 349, Ames, IA 50010, (515) 232-5661 ext. 108, or todd@practicalfarmer.org. PNMWG Update will be printed every other month for member organizations and others who want to know about PNMWG activities.