Northeast Regional Lead Team project
Although the Northeast leads the nation in farm-direct sales to consumers,
direct sales in our region account for only 3.4% of total farm sales. This means
that nearly all our agricultural products go through longer supply chains. Many
N.E. producers are looking for more lucrative markets - beyond direct, and as an
alternative to conventional wholesale. As energy costs and food safety concerns
escalate, demand and appreciation for regionally produced food grows. We have a
unique opportunity to develop and support regionally focused, appropriately
scaled food supply chains of differentiated products.
N.E. producers cannot scale up from direct marketing or shift from
undifferentiated commodity markets without strong buy-in from other players in
new supply chains and the larger community. What will it take? What's already in
place? What are the unique challenges in developing regional value chains (RVC)
for the N.E.? The Northeast Regional Lead Team (RLT) project will address these
questions.
How will the RLT project work?
Who's involved?
Parlez-vous regionalism and value chains?
How will the RLT project work?
Successful RVCs form the core of our Northeast Regional Lead Team (RLT). They
will learn from one another and foster other RVC enterprises. Drawing from
concepts of regionalism, business clusters and "communities of practice", the
RLT will oversee research, inventorying, mapping and analysis to examine
existing conditions and evaluate the capacity for RVCs in the Northeast.
The RLT will tap into existing expertise, identify infrastructure and other
gaps, and build leadership and capacity to advance RVCs. They will evaluate
policies at the state, inter-state, and state-federal levels that hinder or
foster the aggregation, processing, distribution and/or purchase of regionally
sourced, differentiated food products. They will share findings and successes
with the National Good Food Network, the NESAWG community and others.
RLT members are:
• The Center for Agricultural Development &
Entrepreneurship (NY) -- Chris Harmon
• Red Tomato (MA) -- Michael Rozyne
• Farm Fresh Connection (ME)
-- Martha Putnam
• Chesapeake Fields (MD) -- John
Hall
• Tuscarora Organic Growers (PA) -- David
Robb
• Whole Foods Market's North
Atlantic "forager" -- Susan Phinney
• Northeast Regional Center for Rural
Development -- Stephan Goetz
• Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working
Group -- Kathy Ruhf
Project director is Kathy Ruhf, NESAWG coordinator. Consultants are Kate Clancy
and Annie Cheatham. For further information, please contact Kathy Ruhf,
413-323-9878 or [email protected].
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Parlez-vous regionalism and value chains?
Region: A region may be defined by political or administrative boundaries,
watersheds, bioregions or culture. Regions are composed of sub-regions; they
overlap; they "nest" in larger regions. All regions can be characterized by
physical characteristics, political dynamics, socio-economic factors, and
socio-cultural features. For this project, RVCs operate at various regional
scales within the twelve-state Northeast.
Regionalism: A framework for policy analysis and development that: 1) responds
to regional differences and needs; and 2) encourages regional approaches and
solutions.
Food supply chain: A network of business enterprises through which food products
move from production through consumption. Typical links in the supply chain are:
inputs - producer - processor - distributor - wholesaler - retailer - consumer
Value chain: There are several definitions of value chain. Most commonly:
"Value-added" value chains feature food products that are converted from raw
product through processes that give the resulting product an "incremental value"
-- higher price or expanded market -- in the market place.
"Value-added" value chains can also be also used to characterize food products
that obtain incremental value in the marketplace by differentiating them based
on product attributes such as: geographical source; environmental stewardship
(production practices); food safety; or functionality.
Values-based supply chains: are characterized by business relationships among
interacting food business enterprises that are expressly based in an articulated
set of values, rather than any conversion or attribute of the product itself.
Values-based value chains exhibit attributes of both value chains and
values-based supply chains.
Regional value chain (RVC): For this project, a regional value chain is one that
features a significant volume of food product differentiated by conversion from
raw product, or by product attribute(s); consists of at least three functionally
different but linked partners (enterprises) that are regionally located and/or
focused, and appropriately scaled; and emphasizes or strives for business
relationships based on articulated values such as strategic partnerships,
equitable distribution of rewards, etc.
Community of practice: A group of people who share a concern, set of problems or
passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in the area
by interacting on an ongoing basis (Wegner, McDermott and Snyder (2002)).
Business cluster: A geographic concentration of interconnected companies where
location is a competitive advantage. A cluster may consist of "horizontal" (like
or competing) companies, firms connected by one or more elements or interests in
common, or companies in a supply chain.