Category: Publications
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Why and How to Include Policy in Ag of the Middle Research
Over the years, NC 1198 members have identified and articulated many issues facing Ag of the Middle producers and their supply chain partners. We all understand that public policy plays…
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Agriculture of the Middle entry from the Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics
In Thompson, PB and DM Kaplan, editors. 2014. Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer Science+Business Media, Dordrecht, Netherlands. This entry focuses on ethical issues associated with the decline and…
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Teaching Case for Sustainable Supply Chain Management
This teaching case describes the issues and dilemmas facing a natural beef cooperative at a turbulent moment in their industry. With a severe economic downturn, increasing cattle handling demands from…
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Using Ag of the Middle Case Studies in a Course on Cooperative Organization
Developed by Dr. Robert P. King, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota (rking@umn.edu) This paper describes the use of a series of case studies on values-based food supply chains…
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Cross Case Study Observations
All of the enterprises profiled in the values-based food supply chain case studies involve and serve what the authors defined as farms and ranches of the middle, and all of…
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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…
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Program Participation and Policy Challenges
Starting with the early development of the “disappearing middle” hypothesis in the 1980s, farm policy has been integral to the question of how to maintain the viability of midscale agriculture.…
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Strategies for Agri-Food Enterprises-of-the-Middle
Some people in the agri-food business community use the term “value chain” to focus on supply chains that deal with food products given incremental value through processing and/or attribute differentiation…
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An Introduction to Nine Case Studies
In recent decades, U.S. agriculture has witnessed a decline in the number of “farming occupation” farms—where operators report farming as their main occupation—in all gross sales categories below $500,000. Many…
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Full Circle
Full Circle is an organic farm-to-table delivery service based in western Washington, that grows, sources and distributes fresh produce on a subscription basis. Begun in 1996 by the husband-wife team…
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Idaho’s Bounty
Idaho’s Bounty was founded in 2007 as a cooperative with both customer and producer members. It provides logistical support for a direct-to-consumer, Internet-based food buying club. The co-op focuses on…
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Good Earth Farms
Mike and Deb Hansen started their Central Wisconsin farm, Gifts from the Good Earth, in 1995. Their goals for their farm revolved around environmental, economic and social sustainability. As demand…
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Home Grown Wisconsin
Home Grown Wisconsin was a cooperative, multi-farm food marketing enterprise founded in 1996 in south Central Wisconsin. This co-op sold fresh produce to upscale restaurants and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)…
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Co-op Partners Warehouse
Co-op Partners Warehouse was established in 1999 by the Wedge Natural Foods Co-op in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This certified organic wholesale distribution warehouse serves retail stores, food service businesses and buying…
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Red Tomato
Michael Rozyne, one of the creators of the international fair trade company Equal Exchange, founded an organization called Red Tomato in 1996. The goals for Red Tomato were to develop…