July 24, 2008
KC Food Pioneer: ‘Yes You Can!’
This year, the Michigan Land Use Institute celebrated the publication of its fifth annual Taste the Local Difference farm food guide with a special event: A ...more

July 21, 2008
Programs Grow Local Food, New Farmers
It was a picture perfect July day when teenagers Molly Fish, Chris Steffs, and Carmen Ortiz arrived at Meadowlark Farm. The three, part of a youth entrepreneur ...more

June 26, 2008
Herbie the Love Bug Rides Again!
It’s 1974, I’m 10, and my sister and I are watching Herbie the Love Bug Rides Again, the hit movie about a lovable Volkswagen who saves a little ...more

June 9, 2008
Keeping Up with the Jones, Tastefully
Sometimes keepin’ up with the Joneses is a good thing. That’s when it’s called inspiration. Consider these vastly different lunch menus: One ...more

April 21, 2008
Farm-to-School Success Stirring State Action
A Michigan lawmaker and a state agriculture agency are each taking steps to make it easier for schools to serve more locally grown fresh foods to their ...more

March 19, 2008
N.W. Michigan Growers, Educators Pack Farm-to-School Conference
More than 300 people attended an historic conference in Traverse City last week to learn about purchasing, preparing and serving healthy, locally grown food at ...more

March 16, 2008
State Law Slows Farm-to-School Progress
Here we were, 330 of the region’s professionals in school education, nutrition, and health, working to nudge fresh, wholesome local food into the center ...more

March 7, 2008
Raising a New Kind of ‘Eater’
I had breakfast with Marty Heller and Michelle Ferrarese at their farm on the kind of February morning that makes most people want to go back to bed. But they ...more

February 7, 2008
Prosperous Farms, Well-Fed Kids:
When Frankfort-Elbert high schoolers staged a “strike” over the quality of their cafeteria food two years ago, their timing was perfect: School ...more

August 30, 2007
New Leelanau Extension Director Has ‘Perfect Job’
Years of doctoral study convinced Rob Sirrine that, when it comes to educating growers, it’s about a lot more than telling them how much nitrogen ...more

August 25, 2007
Making Room for Fresh Food, Healthier Communities
Each week, Bryan Poirier looks forward to the fresh salad greens, brilliant red peppers, and juicy heirloom tomatoes his family gets from nearby Meadowlark ...more

June 14, 2007
Leelanau Group Eyes Different Way to Preserve Farms
Most Sunday afternoons a small group of local people meet in a Leelanau County living room to discuss a very big idea: making it easier for new farmers and ...more

June 4, 2007
Up North, It’s Local Food Time
After PBS food show host Eric Villegas visited a school and a restaurant in northwest Michigan that serve locally grown food, he declared the area comparable ...more

May 18, 2007
Did SOP Move Lawmakers?
One of the busiest people at the Michigan Land Use Institute’s recent Seeds of Prosperity conference was veteran lobbyist Jean Doss. ...more

April 26, 2007
Idealism, Opportunity Build Hot New Market
Kris Horton is the most prominent cheese seller in newly vigorous Portland, Me., and not only because her store’s coolers are full of specialty cheeses. ...more

April 11, 2007
Young Farmers Defy Ownership Odds
After Katie Brandt graduated, she landed her dream job as a farmhand. Though she earned little for her hard work, Ms. Brandt did not mind, because her work ...more

March 21, 2007
Wanted: Cheap Land, Good Advice
Fred Hempel’s land, currently covered with nitrogen-fixing blue beans, will soon sprout specialty tomatoes, peppers, and salad greens. Once ripe, ...more

March 14, 2007
A Link to Farming’s Future
Pennsylvania farmer David Hufcut rises at 5:30 a.m., makes coffee, and heads to the milking barn, where he lives his dream—continuing his family’s ...more

March 9, 2007
New Faces, New Futures
Leo Ocanas came to the United States from Mexico with his family, his green card, and a readiness to harvest crops. Three decades, countless farms, and ...more

March 8, 2007
How Preston Maring Doctors Hospital Food
More than 200 farmers, food processors and retailers, health experts, and economists gathered in Lansing last month at the Michigan Land Use Institute’s ...more

December 2, 2006
Way Better than Summer School!
All last summer, Shawn Morgan, a Kalkaska County teen, and Jorden Smith, an 11-year-old Detroiter, spent their Saturdays discovering a brand-new world. Each ...more

November 22, 2006
Will State Leaders Heed Election Message?
Michigan’s most important economic development story—and to some extent, the nation’s—is not about what is happening in Lansing or ...more

October 30, 2006
Quick! Confiscate the Butter!
For three years, farmers Richard and Annette Hebron have delivered weekly batches of fresh, unpasteurized milk and dairy products direct to some 150 members of ...more

October 24, 2006
On Magnificent Peninsula, A Grassroots Tussle Over Preserving Farmland
A long push to preserve working farmland in an exceptionally scenic Michigan peninsula is sparking a vigorous grassroots electoral contest over the future of ...more

September 22, 2006
There’s a Ford in Food’s Future
The excitement in George Moroz’ voice is about more than The Henry Ford Museum’s recent big discovery. It is also about the fact that the ...more