KK&P, along with frequent partner Mass Economics, was retained by the Memphis-based AgLaunch to develop an economic development and innovation strategy for the regional agriculture system of the Mid-South Delta Region. Consisting of 98 counties in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee, the Mid-South Delta is home to remarkable assets that support a multi-billion-dollar agriculture and food economy.
While historically robust with many natural resources and critical infrastructure in place, the agriculture industry in the Mid-South Delta nevertheless faced a crisis brought on by falling commodity prices, increasing global production, a lack of crop diversity, and a system designed more to export unprocessed commodities than to capture value within the region itself. The desire to create a new agriculture economy was motivated by a need to head off that crisis but to also envision and create a healthy, durable, inclusive agriculture strategy.
The KK&P team’s recommendations were grounded in extensive quantitative and qualitative data about the region’s agriculture economy, its historical prominence as a national and global distribution hub, the social and health conditions of both rural and urban centers, and the importance of Memphis as one of the top ten American cities for food and beverage manufacturing. The final deliverable captured unique dynamics across the region, examined the barriers to progress, and defined four stages of innovation to map a way forward for the region.