Agriculture of the Middle

Research, education and policy strategies that keep farmers and ranchers on the land

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Education

We have created teaching materials on values based food supply chains for university-level courses and extension.

Agriculture of the Middle researchers have produced teaching materials on value-based food supply chains for university-level food systems, business, and economics courses. These teaching materials include an introductory overview of values-based food supply chains and case studies that illustrate the benefits and challenges of these supply chains.

Using Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Studies in University Classes
Nine values-based food supply chain case studies developed under a series of two USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Institute (AFRI) grants provide a set of consistently structured descriptions of diverse food supply chains that are contributing to change in the food system. As such, these case studies are a valuable resource for research on supply chain structure and performance. They are also a valuable resource for teaching, since they offer learners detailed descriptions of real-world businesses that illustrate general concepts being introduced and explored in a classroom or extension workshop setting.

The nine case studies can be found here. The businesses profiled include:

Country Natural Beef, a successful, relatively small cooperative that markets natural beef products for its members.

Organic Valley, a farmer-owned cooperative that markets organic milk and other dairy products nationwide for its members.

Red Tomato, a dual purpose non-profit organization that (a) markets sustainably grown fruits and vegetables in the Northeast and (b) consults on regional food system development across the country.

Shepherd’s Grain, a closed membership limited liability company that markets flour milled from wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest using no-till and direct-seeding sustainable farming practices.

Co-op Partners Warehouse, a certified organic wholesale distribution warehouse in St. Paul, Minnesota, that is owned and operated by the Wedge Natural Foods Co-op.

Full Circle, an organic farm-to-table delivery service that grows, sources and distributes fresh produce to West Coast communities on a subscription basis.

Good Earth Farms, a family-owned business in central Wisconsin that markets organic grassfed beef and pasture-raised pork and poultry through the internet to customers nationwide.

Home Grown Wisconsin, a now-disbanded farmer-owned cooperative that distributed fresh produce to upscale restaurants and CSA customers in the Chicago area from 1996 until the spring of 2009.

Idaho’s Bounty, a multi-stakeholder cooperative that operates an online marketplace for locally produced food in southern Idaho.

What We Do

  • Education
  • Policy
  • Research

Publications

  • Definitions
  • Background Reading
  • Research
  • Guides for Producers and Extension Educators
  • Values-Based Food Supply Chain Case Studies
  • Teaching Materials
  • Food Hubs Map
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Contact our webmaster: mmmille6@wisc.edu

Current funding support provided by United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Multistate project, NC-1198, “Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle: Value Chain Design, Policy Approaches, Environmental and Social Impacts”(2017 -2022).

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