NC_temp1198: Enhancing the Resilience of Agriculture and Food of the Middle: Building for the Future

Duration: 10/01/2027 to 09/30/2032

Administrative Advisor(s):

William Nganje

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Coordinate dissemination efforts of members’ individual and collective scholarly work to position issues of the Agriculture of Middle perennially in policy conversations at local, state, and national levels, through establishing shared guidance, templates, and channels for communication outputs.
Grow our industry network, focusing on developing deeper relationships with farms, markets, and food businesses of the middle to strengthen opportunities for regional and multistate collaboration in applied research to meet stakeholder needs.
Plan for long-term workforce development by sharing resources for graduate and undergraduate education in Agriculture of the Middle topics across both LGU and non-LGU partner institutions with a focus on social, economic, and organizational disciplines applied to agriculture and food system industries
Build a common foundation of resources—including research articles, case studies, conceptual frameworks, vocabulary definitions, and policy or public communication outputs—to catalyze multistate collaboration in examining the social, physical, and governance structures of values-based food supply chains (VBSCs) and the internal and external constraints on their ability to preserve values along the supply chain and strengthen the viability of mid-scale farms.