Engagement for transformation: Value webs for local food system development

• Published in: Agriculture and human values Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 379 - 388
• Main Authors: Block, Daniel R, Thompson, Michael, Euken, Jill, Liquori, Toni, Fear, Frank, Baldwin, Sherill
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01.09.2008; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural Economics; Agriculture; business partnerships; Collaboration; Colleges & universities; Consumers; Education; Ethics; Evolutionary Biology; Food; food chain; Food supply; higher education; History; local food systems; Philosophy; Public private partnerships; Research methodology; Studies; Systems development; Value chain; value webs; Values; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; United States > US; USA; Higher education–community partnerships; Value webs; Value chains; Local food systems
• ISSN: 0889-048X; 1572-8366
• DOI: 10.1007/s10460-008-9113-5

Engagement happens when academics and non-academics form partnerships to create mutual understanding, and then take action together. An example is the “value web” work associated with W. K. Kellogg Foundation's Food Systems Higher Education-Community Partnership. Partners nationally work on local food systems development by building value webs. “Value chains,” a concept with considerable currency in the private sector, involves creating non-hierarchical relationships among otherwise disparate actors and entities to achieve collective common goals. The value web concept is extended herein by separating the values of the web itself, such as the value of collaboration, from values “in” the web, such as credence values associated with a product or service. By sharing and discussing case examples of work underway around the United States, the authors make a case for employing the value webs concept to represent a strategy for local food systems development, specifically, and for higher education-community partnerships, generally.