Michigan’s agricultural sector does not attract nearly enough attention from the state’s government, although the industry contributes more than $59 billion annually to the state’s economy and employs one million people. Yet, even as more farmland falls to suburban development and agriculture’s political influence erodes, many growers are developing bright, new, entrepreneurial approaches that can save their family farms, the rural towns that depend on them, and our precious land. This special, ongoing series, which points toward the Institute’s second Seeds of Prosperity conference this fall, reports on the challenges and opportunities facing Michigan’s farmers and new policies that local, state, and national officials must embrace to strengthen this welcome trend. The series’ first four articles were written in partnership with Michigan State University’s Land Policy Program.
Good food, good jobs
Tuesday, September 05, 2006 Study Says Buying Local Food Would Boost State Economy
Strengthening local marketing efforts and channeling economic development investments to local food sales would dramatically improve Michigan’s economy, according to a new report on the economic impact of local food. The report, Eat Fresh and Grow Jobs, concludes that doubling or tripling the amount of fresh produce farmers sold to local markets could boost farmers’ net incomes by up to 16 percent, generate up to 1,889 new jobs, preserve farmland, and improve public health.
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More Michigan farms and farmland
Thursday, August 31, 2006 Farmland Preservation Takes Flight
Farmland conservation programs are catching on across America, but they are just beginning to take off in Michigan, where voters have approved a handful of local programs. By guaranteeing that at least some farmland will never be developed, these local programs protect rural landscapes and lifestyles—and the bedrock of Michigan’s second-largest economic sector. Farmland preservation experts believe that farmland conservation could take root in Michigan’s soil, as it has across America, but that will require real political leadership.
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Sunday, August 20, 2006 Farmland Conservation’s East Coast Pioneers
The enduring importance of farming to the nation’s economy is finally turning heads across the country. The rush of land development at the urban edge—particularly the sheer speed with which development can transform open spaces into acres of parking lots—is helping to transform farmland conservation into a genuine American phenomenon coast to coast.
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Changing view
Friday, August 11, 2006 Coast to Coast, Farmland Preservation Blossoms
Lloyd Flanagan’s farm is the second that has been permanently protected by Kent County’s four-year-old Farmland Preservation Program. That such a program is doing so well in such a conservative part of Michigan demonstrates just how strongly farmland preservation is catching on across the country. Local and state campaigns to protect farmland are surmounting partisan, class, and political impediments to become a powerful, though little-noticed economic and political movement in the United States.
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Right message
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 Dairy Farms or More Suburbia?
Even with good weather, Lapeer farmer Louis Martus is worried about something—the sprawling development encroaching on his county’s open land. Mr. Martus, who is part of Lapeer County’s $50 million per year dairy industry, is leading a drive to pass a property tax millage that would be the first of its kind in Michigan, although it is increasingly common elsewhere. It would preserve farmland by paying farmers cash for permanently surrendering their land’s development rights
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Hanson's potatos
Friday, February 10, 2006 Farmers Rejoice as Governor Orders State to Buy Michigan First
Farmers are thrilled with the state’s “Buy Michigan First” program. Now, when local food providers bid for a contract with Michigan’s schools, jails, or government cafeterias, they’ll have an edge over out-of-state competition. More importantly, the state’s purchasing power will help grow agricultural jobs, protect family farms, and prevent sprawl.
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Farm values
Sunday, January 01, 2006 An Inheritance Neglected
There are just three ways to protect Michigan’s farmland and the economy that depends on it: Help farmers build new business opportunities, zone the land to prevent commercial development, or buy the land’s development rights. The state has done a very small amount of the first and not nearly enough with the other two, even though agriculture plays a huge role in Michigan’s economy.
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Gabriel Barajas
Thursday, December 15, 2005 Color Of Opportunity in Van Buren Is Blue...Berries
When Gabriel Barajas recognized his father’s blueberries were a hit with wholesale fresh-food buyers, he realized he could succeed. As it turns out, a new study that identifies “success factors” for state farmers concludes much the same thing. But, the study adds, Michigan must begin building new economic development models for agriculture so that the industry will continue growing
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Old Mission Peninsula
Monday, December 12, 2005 ‘What’s Good for Farms Is Good for Michigan’
Michigan farmers are taking every step they can think of to ensure that their profitable farms won’t be swallowed by another subdivision. Protecting farmland, say economists, not only aids thriving farms it is also vital to the state’s prosperity. Agriculture forms Michigan's second largest economic sector, and is becoming ever more important as a source of jobs and profit as wages flatten and manufacturing jobs disappear, according to new research by Michigan State University and the state Department of Agriculture. One million Michigan residents are employed in agriculture-dependent industries, including processing, manufacturing, marketing, transportation, tourism, and recreation. Yet state government and business leaders are reluctant to make investments that assure the farm sector’s success.
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Gordon Endsley
Friday, November 11, 2005 For State Farmers and Their Land, New Respect
Often overlooked in the mayhem that is Michigan’s current economy is the contribution that agriculture makes to sustain the state. Now a new study by Michigan State University confirms that farmland should be regarded as a solid base for a new economic strategy, rather than as a reservoir of empty land waiting for suburbanization.
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