Part of the difficulty in building up more regional food supply chains is related to the essential work of connecting farmers to wholesale buyers who need large quantities of produce.
That was some of what regional food business centers across the country were aiming to address before USDA terminated the startup program this summer.
“In some cases, they connected small farmers to an aggregator, or someone who brokered purchases, then they were able to aggregate them, buy from all these small farmers and then sell to a single buyer,” said Hannah Quigley, policy specialist at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
That structure could help incentivize larger purchasers like food banks, states or school districts to buy more local food.
The Heartland Food Business Coalition is working on it. The Coalition is the ongoing effort of partners from five states who built the USDA-funded, now-terminated, Heartland Regional Food Business Center
News Coverage
Read more about the Heartland Food Business Coalition’s work to build up small farm and food businesses and regional supply chains in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
A November 25, 2025, article by The Beacon explains: https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025/11/25/usda-cuts-regional-food-business-missouri-kansas-nebraska/