“Not a siloed effort”: Partnership strategies supporting regional grain value chains in the Upper Northeast, USA

The industrialization and commodification of grain production has had major environmental, health, and economic implications. Pushing back against this commodity system, grain value chains are emerging in the form of collaborations between farmers, millers, bakers, maltsters, and brewers. These partnerships are part of a broader movement toward the development of values-based supply chains in the food system, in which business part­ners establish long-term, strategic partnerships based on shared values like fairness, commitment to community, and environmental sustainability. In these arrangements, farmers capture a larger share of the food dollar than in commodity supply chains and are treated as valued partners rather than inter­changeable suppliers. Despite the presence of localized grain value chains throughout the U.S., little research exists on their development or func­tioning. This study examines the nature of partner­ships in grain value chains in the Northeast, where food-grade grain production is particularly chal­lenging but nonetheless present. We present a mul­tiple-case study of three established grain value chains—Maine Grains, Farmer Ground Flour, and Valley Malt—that examines the nature of their partnerships and the strategies they employ to navi­gate challenges in their values-based supply chains. The findings from this study, which are drawn from 41 in-depth interviews with grain growers, processors, end-users, and other key informants, demonstrate that developing committed, trusting, and interdependent partnerships that value one another’s success is key to the functioning of these grain value chains.