Homegrown groceries get a boost
Snyder looking to build agribusiness
How big a driver — for the economy and jobs — can agriculture be in Michigan?
Gov. Rick Snyder bowed to Michigan’s No. 2 industry in his State of the State speech Wednesday, as he skimmed over the No.1 industry, autos. Building on the popular Buy Local campaigns, Snyder also advocated investing locally and growing local to boost all of Michigan’s bounty: cherries, peaches, pickles, soybeans, cheese, milk, meat, sod and other products produced here. “We must better recognize agriculture’s importance to our economy,” Snyder said. Michigan’s $71.3-billion agriculture industry employs more than 1 million residents, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. It is the second-most agriculturally diverse state, producing more than 200 commodities. Snyder wants to expand two programs to benefit agriculture but was slim on details. Farmers said they see big opportunities to expand the processing of Michigan’s crops here — instead of shipping them to other states — and to expand research and agri-tourism of Michigan’s more than 10 million acres of farmland. “My wife and I were going, ‘Woo hoo!’” Ken Prielipp, owner of Hilltop Greenhouse and Farms in Washtenaw County, said of Synder’s speech. “Finally, someone’s recognizing what agriculture does for the state of Michigan and how important it is for the country and world.”
Julianna Schlemmer of Ypsilanti gets Michigan-made items from Sarah Lee of Farmington at Busch’s Fresh Food Market in West Bloomfield. Gov. Rick Snyder has addressed the importance of agriculture.
Snyder gives farmers hope
He looks to get aid from jobs fund to help industry
Ken Prielipp, 47, of Lima Township has been farming his whole life, but he knows not everyone wants to talk about agriculture. So when the owner of Hilltop Greenhouse and Farms, which grows flowers, corn, soybeans, wheat and hay in Washtenaw County, heard Gov. Rick Snyder emphasize the importance of that industry in his first major address to Michigan residents, he was pleased. Snyder discussed the changes he wants the state Legislature to make to help the industry. They include making agricultural processors eligible for the 21st Century Jobs Fund, which would provide funds to create and retain jobs as well as more commercial lending, and strengthening the state’s Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program; that would help farms of all sizes prevent or minimize environmental problems. “The mere fact he talked about agriculture, that was tremendous in our eyes that someone, the governor’s finally recognizing that agriculture is important” to Michigan, Prielipp said. Michigan is the second-most agriculturally diverse state in the U.S. and is first in U.S. production of 18 commodities, such as blueberries, tart cherries, geraniums and pickle cucumbers. Food processing Michigan also ranks 19th in the country for food processing, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Keith Creagh, director of that department, explained that the jobs fund — currently for life sciences, alternative energy, automotive, and homeland security and defense — will help the high-tech sector of the agriculture industry, too. “What the governor is saying is the food and agriculture industry can be part of the economic recovery and invention for the state,” Creagh said. Doug Buhler, interim dean of Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, liked Snyder’s embrace of ag-processing. “One thing that limits our potential is processing capacity,” he said. “So if we can put a system in place that allows for more processing in the state, the more the value added from our products can remain” here in Michigan. Added Wayne Wood, president of the Michigan Farm Bureau and a Marlette dairy farmer: “We have a lot of agriculture production in the state that’s transported out of this state and is then transported back into the state as a food product. … That only adds to the cost of food for our residents in Michigan, but it also takes the jobs out of Michigan that should” stay in the state. Michigan has 1,588 licensed food processors, which employ more than 130,000 residents in the close to $25-billion industry. The Michigan Department of Agriculture said the state is No. 19 in the country in food processing. A proactive program Synder also said he wants to strengthen the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program. That comprehensive, voluntary program is designed to reduce farmers’ legal and environmental risks through a three-phase process using education, farm-specific risk assessment and a verification system that ensures the farmer has implemented environmentally sound practices. Snyder’s point man, Creagh, said his boss believes that “if you have a proactive program, then that negates the need for additional regulations.” Environmentalists are happy about the program that teaches farmers to be environmentally friendly. However, Gayle Miller, legislative director of the Sierra Club’s Michigan chapter, doesn’t want to see any changes to the eco-friendly agriculture regulations and worries about waste discharge by animal processors. She also questioned the governor’s reference to “frivolous lawsuits” against farmers as relates to environmental protections. Norman DeBuck, 60, owner of New Lawn Sod Farm and DeBuck’s Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch in Belleville, also applauded the governor’s agriculture efforts, especially promoting more Michigan exports to Canada, including Michigan-grown and processed foods. He said he would have liked the governor to have spoken more precisely about what he plans to do. Some in the agriculture world had suggestions about what Snyder should add to his agriculture to-do list. Matt Germane, an agricultural engineer and owner of Hickory Hill Farm in Hartland Township, Livingston County, which grows hay for the equine industry, suggested Michigan officials work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase the state’s exports. Buhler from MSU wants more emphasis on agriculture research and agri-tourism. And Wood of the farm bureau said he sees a need to up Michigan’s ag-processing sector and for more infrastructures for the agriculture industry, such as roads, energy sources and railroads. • CONTACT ZLATI MEYER: ZMEYER@FREEPRESS.COM FARMERS MARKET A TURNAROUND SUCCESS
Manager of Royal Oak site is now looking to retire
The boss of the Royal Oak Farmers Market is retiring after 11 years of helping to turn an aging structure slated for demolition into a regional hit. Gwen Ross, who spent years restoring the building, said she’d like to leave by April 24. “I want to see my grandchildren,” said Ross, 69. “Gwen’s going to be a tough act to follow,” Royal Oak Mayor Jim Ellison said. “She’s been a true advocate of the market and the merchants of the market, and she’s done a very good job of diversifying this as an asset of the city. It’s much more than a farmers market now,” Ellison said. In February, city officials plan to post a Request for Proposals for individuals or management teams to bid on the market master job Ross does for $62,000 a year — rising at 3 a.m. to greet farmers and working 60-hour weeks, she said. The market building, erected in 1927, was owned 60% by Oakland County and 40% by the city when county officials suggested razing it in the mid-1990s, records at the Royal Oak Public Library show. But preservation buffs prevailed, and Royal Oak bought out the county in 1997 — the year Ross, a part-time antiques vender at the farmers market, quit her General Motors insurance job to run the place. Through grants and revenues from rentals, she and city officials spent the next dozen years restoring the building, ultimately gaining building-code approvals to host fund-raisers and weddings. “We’ve started having Chamber of Commerce expos and big dinners for various service organizations,” said Greg Rassel, Royal Oak director of Recreation and Public Service. Although the recession dented revenues, the city hopes the market someday will turn a profit, Rassel said. The farmers market roughly breaks even each year after reinvesting revenues in improvements. In 2010, after installing a gleaming new commercial kitchen for $125,000, the market lost $7,600 on revenues of nearly $350,000, City Manager Don Johnson said. The market hosts farmers year-round selling Michigan produce each Saturday. The building’s restoration came just in time for the blooming locavore movement, in which city dwellers strive to get close to food sources. In 2010, U.S. farmers markets grew in number by 16%, with Michigan in the top five states for growth, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Where else can you meet the person who grew the tomato you’re buying?” City Commissioner Patricia Capello said. “You see a lot of people bringing their children and teaching them about food. It’s a place that harkens back to a more gentle time.” • CONTACT BILL LAITNER: 586-826-7264 OR BLAITNER@FREEPRESS.COM 
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteGreat photos (and articles).
Your comments about the second graders was on target. Let's hurry and get started.
(My Google account was for my daughter, thus the DAD)
See you Wed. 26th
JCUD