The Midwest is the center of conventional agriculture in the U.S. While highly productive, conventional agriculture creates environmental, economic, and social problems as it is produced, processed, and transported. In response, a movement of farmers, workers, non-profit organizations, universities, government agencies, and others has worked for decades to shift the region’s agricultural landscape towards more regenerative production practices. For many, the goal has been to improve the health of the environment and rural economies by changing agriculture practices and producing nutritious food that improves the wellbeing of farmers, workers, and consumers. This vision necessitates a greater diversity of crops and livestock on the landscape, connected to markets by businesses who balance their benefit with those of farmers, workers, customers, and communities.
Scaling regenerative agriculture in the Midwest and realizing its full benefits requires transforming or replacing consolidated supply chains with value chains. Value chains are collaboratively developed market relationships that link farmers, workers, and consumers through core values of equity, transparency, and fairness. Value chain coordination is a set of roles or activities that foster linkages and create added value to individuals, firms, product chains, and the broader regional economies in which these activities take place.
Through this planning grant, a group of Midwest partners – facilitated by the Wallace Center – will develop a shared strategy for advancing value chain coordination (VCC) to incentivize regenerative, equitable agriculture in the region. Core partners include the Artisan Grain Collaborative, Green Lands Blue Waters, Savanna Institute, Forever Green Initiative, and the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative.
Years Active: 2023-2025
Midwest Value Chain Coordination: Strengthening Food Systems Through Shared Values >>
This graphic was created by Amy Sparks and developed jointly by a group of peer organizations building value chains for perennials and other crops that provide living cover on the farm landscape: Artisan Grain Collaborative, Forever Green, Grassland 2.0, Green Lands Blue Waters, Savanna Institute, and the Wallace Center. It shows the shared vision of what we are collectively working toward with an aim for greater connectivity across and impact in value chain coordination work at the landscape-scale in the upper Midwest.