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 food value chains.

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? Northeast RLT Glossary
 

How will the RLT project work?

The Northeast Regional Lead Team (RLT) project is part of the National Good Food Network, supported by the Wallace Center at Winrock International. The purpose of our one-year project is to learn more about existing and emerging value chain initiatives in our 12-state region and to foster them.

Our Northeast Regional Lead Team is led by successful value chain initiatives. We 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. We 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. We will share findings and successes with the National Good Food Network, the NESAWG community and others.

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Who's involved?

RLT members are:
• The Center for Agricultural Development & Entrepreneurship (CADE) (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 kzruhf@verizon.net.

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Parlez-vous regionalism and value chains? Northeast RLT Glossary

We began by drafting our own working glossary to help us understand and explore regional food value chains. We are grateful to others (e.g., National Agriculture of the Middle Initiative, Leopold Center, Northeast Sustainable Traders) for their work on concepts and terminology. This is a work-in-progress.

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 (product attribute) and values-based supply chains (business relationships).

Regional value chain (RVC): For this project, a regional value chain is one that:
a) features a significant volume of differentiated food product (by value-added conversion from raw product, or by product attribute(s));
b) consists of at least three functionally different but linked partners (enterprises) that are regionally located and/or focused, and appropriately scaled; and
c) 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.
 

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