Values-based food supply chains are strategic business alliances formed between organized groups of farms and ranches and their supply chain partners to distribute significant volumes of high-quality, differentiated food products and share the rewards equitably. A key characteristic is that farmers and ranchers function as full partners rather than as easily replaced input suppliers. All partners in these business alliances recognize that creating maximum value for the final products depends on significant interdependence, collaboration, and mutual support. Farmer/rancher participation in these supply chains is scale related but not scale determined, with the majority of producers having annual gross sales between $50,000 and $500,000 (referred to here as small-and medium-sized farms).

Values-based food supply chains deliver more products to a larger region than farm-direct markets and are ...