Overview and project history
Goals and objectives
Organization
Project working groups
Meet our graduate assistants
Contact information
Two-page summary sheet [PDF]
Poster about the project [PDF]
Q&A on the project
Watch a video about the project
One-year
anniversary and site visit
Overview and project history
This food systems project brings together farmers, commodity groups, nonprofit agencies, and university and community partners to address challenges found in food markets at the production, processing, distribution and retail levels. VCP activities include research and development grants and other projects carried out by three working groups.
VCP is a project of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Iowa State University Extension, the Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture and the ISU College of Agriculture.
VCP began in July 2002 with a $100,000 planning grant as part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Food and Society Initiative. In March 2003, VCP received a $560,000 Kellogg Foundation grant to continue work through 2005. It was one of 10 projects funded at colleges and universities nationwide as part of the Higher Education-Community Partnership in the foundation's larger Food and Society Initiative. View presentation [PDF]
"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.
During its first four years, VCPSA awarded 46 grants totaling more than $265,000 for research and development projects managed within the four working groups. Those funds were leveraged for an additional $818,000 for niche pork and $319,000 for bioeconomy research. Also as part of the project, a new MBA degree with a minor in sustainable agriculture was launched in the ISU College of Business in collaboration with the ISU Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture.
The third phase of the project will follow 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 the three-year period.
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.
VCPSA is among four market-based change projects nationwide selected by the Wallace Center for funding. The Iowa project has operated working groups to address challenges and markets for niche pork, the bioeconomy and natural fibers, regional foods and flax.
Goals and objectives
The goal of this project is to foster the growth of value chains that reward small and midsize farmers who follow production practices using the highest standards of environmental and community stewardship.
Project activities and programs are designed to:
- Support the growth and/or development of economically viable, value chains that will lead to increases in the number of markets and premiums for participating Iowa producer groups;
- Engage ISU and other service providers in collaborative research and development efforts designed to support value chains rooted in sustainable agriculture, and
- Strengthen relationships and interdisciplinary linkages at ISU and between ISU and other partners working on the development of sustainable food systems.
Organization
Primary partners are the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Iowa State University Extension, the Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture and the ISU College of Agriculture. A project coordination team includes a project director, representatives from each primary partner, working group coordinators, program evaluators, a program assistant and student assistants. Iowa State’s Research Institute for Studies in Education (RISE) coordinates work of the project evaluation team.
A Value Chain Partnerships Advisory Group reviews project work and meets on an as-needed basis to evaluate the university’s capacity to respond to challenges in the targeted value chains. The group includes more than two dozen leaders from nonprofit organizations, agribusinesses, cooperatives, the university research community, and other colleges.
Project working groups
VCP has identified three working groups that each will focus on a different value chain. Each working group has its own steering team and/or organization, and is in a different stage of development.
- The Pork Niche Market Working Group (PNMWG). Formed in January 2002, the PNMWG seeks to help develop highly differentiated pork value chains that are profitable to all participants, incorporate farmer ownership and control, and contribute to environmental stewardship and rural vitality.
- The Regional Food Systems Working Group (RFSWG). This working group, launched in September 2003, will help document economic, environmental and community benefits of local and regional food enterprises.
- The Small Meat Processors Working Group (SMPWG) began in 2006 as an outreach project of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development to help small, Iowa meat processors expand, upgrade, or build new facilities in order to promote rural development and increase agricultural opportunities. The group joined the Value Chain Partnerships (VCP) in August of 2007 and has been able to improve its effectiveness by working in coordination with the other VCP groups.
- The Fruit and Vegetable Working Group (FVWG) Under Construction
- The Grass Based Livestock Working Gropu (GBLWG) Under Construction
Watch a video about the project
One-year
anniversary and Kellogg site visit
- VCP celebrated its first year with an open house Feb. 26, 2004.
In March 2004, project director Gail Imig from the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation brought together many
players and participants for a two-day site visit.
- "The purpose of the Foundation's Higher Education-Community Partnerships program is to show how we can use relationships between the university and people in the community to get things done," Imig told the group at a closing luncheon. "And I tell you what, it's happening here."
