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A project designed to help build food supply networks for sustainably raised Iowa foods has received a $560,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to continue its work for the next 2 1/2 years.
The grant will fund the “Value Chain Partnerships for a Sustainable Agriculture” project directed by the Leopold Center. Other partners are Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), Iowa State University Extension, ISU College of Agriculture and the Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture at ISU.
Value Chain Partnerships has focused on developing markets for small and midsize farmers who use production practices that follow very high standards of environmental and community stewardship. Also key is using collaborative approaches and ISU’s research capacity to establish a value chain where producers, processors, distributors and retailers all can benefit.
“This project brings together all types of farmers, commodity groups, non-profit agencies and the university community to address some of the challenges found in these promising markets for food and other products,” said project director Rich Pirog. “We know the interest and need are high for this type of collaboration based on what we’ve seen from the Pork Niche Market Working Group.”
The grant will be used to continue work of the project’s first effort, the Pork Niche Market Working Group (PNMWG) that began in January 2002. Two other working groups also will be formed – to develop strategies for building local and regional food value chains, and to address producer ownership and equity issues related to new bio-based businesses in Iowa.
In July 2002, Value Chain Partnerships received a $100,000 planning grant from Kellogg. A portion of those funds went to the new PNMWG for its activities.
The planning grant also was used to bring together a Value Chain Partnerships advisory board, which met to determine goals and a work plan. The project team has worked with the ISU Colleges of business and agriculture to establish graduate assistantships that combine an MBA degree with a minor in sustainable agriculture. The latest Kellogg grant will fund assistantships for two graduate students to help the working groups.
The Kellogg grant will continue through July 2005. It does not offset cutbacks in the Leopold Center’s operating budget handed down by the 2002 Iowa Legislature.
Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann said the Value Chain Partnerships project is vital if Iowa farmers are going to compete in a rapidly changing food industry.
“We’re seeing more demand for foods raised by farmers who practice the principles of sustainable agriculture,” Kirschenmann said. “But we need the networks to supply those markets, with a fair return back to the farmer. We’re thrilled that the Kellogg Foundation recognizes and supports this new direction in agriculture.”
ISU is one of 10 colleges and universities with projects in the Kellogg Foundation’s Higher Education-Community Partnership that is part of the Kellogg Food and Society Initiative. The initiative seeks to enhance the capacity of universities and colleges to work with non-profit, government, community-based and private sector partners on critical food systems issues.
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