Identify Food and Agriculture Systems Challenges: People committed to supporting community-based food and agriculture systems often lack the support associated with large corporations. Many communities are faced with the challenges of moving forward with fewer resources.

The Value Chain Partnerships team has been successful because of the benefits of working within a community of working groups (using the community of practice model). The opportunities for networking, collaboration, and information sharing are valuable to its members who are making much greater strides than they could have made independently. The Value Chain Partnerships team leaders recognized that others working in the food and agriculture arena could benefit from their experience. The team submitted a proposal for a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Professional Development Program (SARE PDP) grant. The proposal, entitled “Learning how to use communities of practice to address sustainable agriculture issues” was accepted in November 2008 at a funding level of nearly $66,000.

The Value Chain Partnerships team has built a successful community of Iowa-based food and agriculture working groups by following the community of practice model. As a whole, the group has worked through all aspects of the community of practice life-cycle, including selecting, initiating, managing, funding, branding, and participating in working groups. The group is in a prime position to share this knowledge with others who could benefit from a community of practice.

The Value Chain Partnerships team held a pilot event for Iowa State University Extension in late April 2009, and will host a workshop in July 2009 for SARE’s North Central Region, which includes 12 states in America’s heartland. The workshop will explain to others the purpose, function, and value of using communities of practice to address key emerging community and regional issues in sustainable agriculture and food systems. Rich Pirog, leader of Value Chain Partnerships and Associate Director of the Leopold Center states, “The SARE PDP-sponsored workshops will allow the VCP team to extend our learning beyond our existing working group partners to stimulate the creation of additional working groups in Iowa and across the Midwest.” The group will discuss the community of practice model and how it has been used to develop and sustain a successful community of working groups. The group will also discuss the principles and considerations of the working group life-cycle. In order to provide experiential support, the working groups will provide examples and lessons learned, and host working group meetings where attendees can witness a community of practice in action. In addition, attendees will participate in a case study discussion of two mid-sized values-based food chains, Country Natural Beef and Organic Valley. A follow-up workshop will be planned for early summer 2010.

Additional information on SARE PDP