The Agriculture of the Middle initiative seeks to renew small and mid-sized farming and ranching through innovative market relationships.
The Agriculture of the Middle initiative supports research, education and policy strategies that keep farmers and ranchers on the land. The initiative is supported as a Multistate Research Project through USDA. It brings together practitioners, researchers and activists to explore questions that arise in our efforts to transform agriculture and our food systems.
Agriculture of the Middle projects create strategic alliances among farmers, processors, distributors and retailers to reach consumers who care about the impacts of their food purchases.
Highlights
October 8-9, 2026: About thirty of us gathered in Minneapolis to work on AOTM, and our official notes will be available soon. Patrick Baur (Univ of RI) chaired the meeting with outgoing chair Annalena Bruce (Univ of NH). Our incoming chair Kathryn DeMaster (UC Berkeley) will lead our meeting next year. The Good Acre in Minneapolis donated local apples for our Apple Crunch group photo, below.
June 9-12, 2027: AOTM plans to participate in the next Agriculture, Food and Human Values conference. “Cultivating Care: New American Food Systems” will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What We Do
Research
Our research addresses economic, social, environmental, and policy topics related to a thriving Agriculture of the Middle… Read More
Education
We have created teaching materials on values based food supply chains for university-level courses and extension. Agriculture… Read More
Policy
Our research informs policy decisions that seek to ensure the viability of small and mid-scale farms and their values based supply chain partners. Starting… Read More
