2023 Impacts

Quality data and actionable knowledge are crucial to sustaining and reinvigorating Agriculture of the Middle and its promise of economic, social and environmental benefits. Through applied and participatory research, outreach, and policy work, NC1198 members investigate the characteristics of mid-scale producers and supply chains as well as factors that contribute to their success or failure (e.g., policy, governance, market concentration, the profitability of credence attributes). As such, our research informs decisions spanning from the farm level to state and federal policy and grant programs. Impacts include: 

  1.  Hendrickson’s research informed rulemaking to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act; 
  2. Inwood and Becot’s research and testimony to Congress informed a bipartisan marker bill for the 2023 Farm Bill policy agenda focused on childcare programs for farmers. 
  3. Research led by Peterson on impacts of COVID-19 on producers, supply chains, and consumers influenced the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to redefine state-level policy for local and regional market development.
  4. Cumulatively, research and engagement with USDA AMS by many members of the project have informed the structure, function, and goals of USDA’s new Regional Food Business Centers and Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure.
  5. Brinkley’s research has improved the capacity of local governments in California to include food systems and climate change in planning.