What Is an AgriCluster?
An AgriCluster is more than a group of farms.
It is a collaborative network of farmers, businesses, researchers, educators, service providers, and community partners working together to strengthen a shared agricultural sector. By aligning around common goals, participants can tackle challenges, develop new opportunities, and build infrastructure that would be difficult for any one organization to create alone.
The Heartland American Elderberry Collaborative (HAECo) was created through the AgriCluster Resilience & Expansion (ACRE) process—a structured community development framework designed to help agricultural stakeholders identify shared opportunities, build trust, and develop a collective path forward.
Rather than forming around a single organization, HAECo emerged through a facilitated process that brought together growers, researchers, extension professionals, processors, entrepreneurs, and community leaders who share a vision for the future of American elderberry in the Heartland.
The ACRE Process
The ACRE process begins by gathering stakeholders around a shared opportunity or challenge. Participants work through a series of facilitated workshops and planning sessions designed to uncover common interests, identify priorities, and develop actionable initiatives.
For the Heartland American Elderberry Collaborative, participants recognized a common challenge: American elderberry growers lack the coordinated infrastructure, processing capacity, storage, distribution systems, research support, and consumer education needed to fully develop the industry.
At the same time, stakeholders identified a significant opportunity. American elderberry is uniquely positioned to support regenerative agriculture, strengthen local food systems, create value-added products, and meet growing consumer interest in health-focused foods and natural wellness.
Through the ACRE process, participants transformed these shared challenges and opportunities into a collaborative vision for regional growth.
Building HAECo Together
A key principle of the ACRE process is that lasting collaboration begins with shared understanding.
Participants explored their individual histories, discussed the evolution of their farms and businesses, identified common values, and developed a collective vision for the future. Through facilitated conversations and consent-based decision making, stakeholders established a foundation of trust and accountability that continues to guide the collaborative today.
The process ultimately identified three strategic areas of focus:
• Building collective capacity among growers and partners
• Exploring shared infrastructure opportunities
• Identifying and developing markets for American elderberry products
These priorities continue to shape the work of HAECo as the collaborative grows.
Shared Values
The ACRE process challenged participants to identify the values they hold most important as individuals, business owners, community members, and environmental stewards.
From that work emerged four guiding commitments that continue to shape HAECo's decisions and activities:
Interact with Integrity
Build Community Collaboration
Cultivate Regenerative Practices
Create and Foster Sustainable Growth
These shared values provide the foundation for how we work together and how we serve growers, businesses, researchers, and communities throughout the Heartland.
Why It Matters
Many agricultural industries develop around large organizations, centralized infrastructure, or outside investment.
HAECo is taking a different approach.
By bringing stakeholders together early in the development of the American elderberry industry, we have the opportunity to build a farmer-centered, research-informed, and community-driven model that supports both economic opportunity and environmental stewardship.
The result is not simply a collaborative organization. It is an emerging AgriCluster designed to strengthen the long-term resilience of American elderberry throughout Kansas, Missouri, and the broader Heartland region.
