● The whole array of activities involved in producing and distributing food*
● Can be local, regional, national, international.
● One component of the agricultural economy
*Statz, John, Strategic Pathways and Interactions to Cutting Hunger in Half in Africa, 2000. http://aec.msu.edu/fs2/africanhunger/strategicpaths.pdf

● Healthy fresh and processed products
● Access to healthy food for all
● Healthy natural environment
● Improved health outcomes
● Ecosystem services and cost avoidance
● Fiscal health through open space
● Employment opportunities
● Entrepreneurial opportunities

Through relationships between and among players who act out of self-interest to achieve shared benefits.
● Suppliers
● Producers
● Processors
● Buyers
● Consumers
● Supporters

● Transactional players provide inputs, produce food, process and distribute food in response to market demand.
● Support system players create the rules for transactional players and contribute to (or limit) their capacity to respond to market demand.

● Health and public health providers
● Government representatives
● Farmers
● Educators
● Food or food-related business
● Researchers
● Volunteers
● CONSUMERS!!!
And more…

● WealthWorks Value Chains
● Broad Definitions of Wealth

WealthWorks Value chain grants in:
Central Appalachia
Energy efficient housing construction, energy efficiency retrofits, renewables, food, forestry
Alabama Black Belt and Mid-South
Renewable energy, social impact investment, forestry, food, Community Based Tourism (CBT)
Lower Rio Grande Valley region in Texas
Green housing/neighborhoods

What do we mean by a
“WealthWorks Value Chain?” a business model based on shared economic, social, and environmental values , in which buyers, processors, producers and others work together to create value in response to market demand while building community wealth.

Traditional Supply Chain WealthWorks Value Chain
Chain starts with producer supply Chain starts with consumer demand
Measured by wealth created/ retained
Measured by net income produced
Everyone is in it for him/herself Everyone is in it together
Power determines who gets paid how much for their role
Intentionally balances mutual benefit of all in chain
Participants try to pass on costs to others within or outside of chain
All known costs are considered and addressed
Tries to influence policy to create advantage and maximize shortterm income
Tries to influence policy to level the playing field and maximize long-term and widely shared wealth

The Wealth Creation Approach
Supply
Chain
Value
Chain
Results
Individual Capital
Social Capital
Intellectual Capital
Natural Capital
Built Capital
Financial Capital
Political Capital
Based on a diagram created by Justin Maxson of MACED

Intellectual capital is the stock of knowledge, innovation, and creativity or imagination in a region.
Social capital is the stock of trust, relationships, and networks that support civil society.
Individual Capital is the stock of skills and physical and mental healthiness of people in a region.

(cont.)
Natural capital is the stock of unimpaired environmental assets (e.g. air, water, land, flora, fauna, etc.) in a region.
Built capital is the stock of fully functioning constructed infrastructure.

Political capital is the stock of power and goodwill held by individuals, groups, and/or organizations that can be held, spent or shared to achieve desired ends.
Financial capital is the stock of unencumbered monetary assets invested in other forms of capital or financial instruments.
A wealth creation approach intentionally creates seven forms of wealth without undermining any one to build another.

“Income” or earnings from investments in wealth take many forms
Individual capital: psychic and physical energy for productive engagement and capacity to use and apply existing knowledge and internalize new knowledge to increase productivity.
Social capital: improved health outcomes, educational outcomes, and reduced transaction costs, among others
Intellectual capital: inventions, new discoveries, new knowledge, and new ways of seeing.
Natural Capital: a sustainable supply of raw materials and environmental services.

The difference between wealth and income
Most projects focus on income (a flow) instead of on building wealth (a stock).
INCOME
WEALTH
EXPENSE

Type of
Wealth
Individual
Social
Intellectual
Natural
Built
Political
Financial
Impacts
How will your plan or intervention impact the stock of skills and physical and mental healthiness of people in a region?
How will your plan or intervention impact the stock of trust, relationships, and networks that support civil society?
How will your plan or intervention impact the stock of knowledge, innovation and creativity?
How will your plan or intervention impact the stock of unimpaired environmental assets in a region
How will your plan or intervention impact the stock of fully functioning constructed infrastructure?
How will your plan or intervention impact the stock of power and goodwill held by individuals, groups, and/or organizations?
How will your plan or intervention impact the stock of unencumbered monetary assets at the individual and community level?

We need enough of every form of wealth so that we can:
●
Benefit directly from a portion of the “income” it produces (improve quality of life), and
●
REINVEST the remainder of the “income” to sustain and grow the stocks of wealth over time.

All wealth depreciates over time.
Only by continually re-investing in all the forms of
wealth are we able to:
● increase the quality of life for present
generations and
● the sustainability of livelihoods for us and future generations.

Selected Gaps in Your Regional Food
System
● Many discrete efforts that are not coordinated as a system tied to market demand at scale
● Lack of information and mechanisms for sharing information among discrete efforts
● Weak ties to specific types of support for financing, research, market expansion, new product development, policy changes, etc.

Challenge: How Can We Address the
Gaps while Building Wealth?
Table Exercise #1: Who is at your Table?
Table Exercise #2: Building Multiple Forms of Wealth through Food Systems

Table Exercise #1: Who is at your Table?
You will have 5-10 minutes to engage in this exercise at your table. Get as far as you can.
This exercise asks you to:
1.
Introduce yourself and explain the role(s) you play in the food system.
2.
As a group, choose a food system gap to discuss
3.
Discuss the type(s) of wealth you/your organizations create and the benefits to you or your organization of closing the food system gap you have selected.

Table Exercise #2: Building Multiple Forms of Wealth through
Food Systems
You will have 15-20 minutes to engage in this exercise at your table. Get as far as you can. This exercise builds on Table
Exercise #1 - continue to focus on the same gap in the system that you identified in Table Exercise #1.
In this exercise you will:
1.
Brainstorm interventions to close the gap you have identified
2.
Choose an intervention to focus on
3.
Plan how you can carry out that intervention in a way that creates multiple forms of wealth, and
4.
Report to the group about your plan.

Shanna Ratner
Yellow Wood Associates
802-524-6141, shanna@yellowwood.org
Wealth Creation and Rural Livelihoods National Community of
Practice http://www.ruralwealth.org