Accomplishments during first three years
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VCPSA web site
The Value Chain
Partnerships for a Sustainable Agriculture (VCPSA)
project has received a $500,000 grant from the Henry A.
Wallace Center at Winrock International to assist Iowa
farmer-based businesses over the next three years. The
Leopold Center will continue to provide leadership for
VCPSA’s new phase, which will continue through 2009.
VCPSA began in 2002 with a goal to build new supply
networks for farmer-led food and fiber enterprises that
follow sustainable practices. The project has supported
working groups to address challenges and markets for
niche pork, the bioeconomy and natural fibers, regional
foods and organic flax.
Other VCPSA core partners are Practical Farmers of Iowa
(PFI), Iowa State University Extension and the ISU
Colleges of Agriculture and Business, with the Leopold
Center and ISU providing matching resources. VCPSA is
among four market-based change projects nationwide
selected by the Wallace Center for funding.
The third phase follows a performance-based business
approach that uses various indicators such as jobs,
sales and profits to measure progress. Goals are to work
with at least 10 farmer-based businesses, 200 farmers
and two Iowa communities over a three-year period.
“We learned a lot in the first two phases of this
project about helping businesses that participate in
value chains that are characterized by trust,
cooperation, transparency and risk-sharing,” said Rich
Pirog, who leads the Leopold Center’s Marketing and Food
Systems Initiative and is the VCPSA project director.
“This new phase will help us better measure success as
we deliver benefits to farmer-based businesses,
communities and the landscape.”
Other project goals are to launch a self-sustaining
Value Chain Institute and to help two of the four
working groups become financially self-sufficient.
Winrock International works with people in the United
States and around the world to increase economic
opportunity, sustain natural resources and protect the
environment. The organization targets work in three
areas: Empowerment and Civic Engagement; Enterprise and
Agriculture; and Environment: Forestry, Energy and
Ecosystem Services.
The Henry A. Wallace Center has been a key organization
in fostering a more sustainable food and agricultural
system in the United States since 1983. As a part of
Winrock International, headquartered in Little Rock,
Arkansas, the Center continues to provide leadership in
program design and implementation, policy analysis,
research, and technical assistance to further the
development of sustainable and equitable agriculture and
food systems. Winrock’s global staff of more than 600
members in 65 countries works to increase long-term
productivity, equity, and responsible resource
management to benefit the poor and disadvantaged.
VCPSA accomplishments
During the project’s first four years, working groups:
-
assisted more than 20
Iowa food and fiber businesses and involved more
than 25 Iowa-based agencies, farmer groups and
nonprofit organizations;
-
awarded 46 grants
exceeding $265,000 for research and development
projects;
-
generated more than
$818,000 in grants from the USDA and other sources
for niche pork markets;
-
generated more than
$319,000 in grants for bioeconomy research and
market development;
-
engaged the SYSCO
Corporation, the largest food service distributor in
North America, in characterizing the optimal
business conditions under which farmer networks can
sell to larger volume buyers;
-
involved 10 ISU College
of Business faculty members in niche agricultural
marketing issues;
-
secured a $400,000
National Research Initiative research grant to
address production costs and herd-health issues for
farmers raising hogs for niche pork markets; and
-
leveraged more than $2
million in cash and in-kind resources from all
sources.
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