Food, Farm Leaders Update Plan for Doubling Local Ag

Farm Route to Prosperity participants take next steps for reaching ambitious, 10-year goal

Nearly 120 food and farm leaders gathered on Friday, April 9, at Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay to plan next steps toward the 10-year goal they set at last year's inaugural Farm Route to Prosperity summit: Increasing the resilience and doubling the value of northwest Michigan's food and farming system.

The gathering brought together a broad range of people and organizations involved in the region's Food and Farming Network, which formed after last year's summit as a way to connect and focus various ongoing local food and farming projects. The Network is one of six working groups associated with the Grand Vision, a regional initiative to support citizens and communities in accomplishing a 50-year development plan that 15,000 people participated in crafting over the last two years.

Two video blogs from the event are now online at the Michigan Land Use Institute and  The Grand Vision Web sites.

The day’s main business was to continue building momentum toward a 10-year goal set at last year's summit. "We're trying to move from ideas to action," explained facilitator Bill Palladino, of Traverse City-based Krios Consulting.

Young and older farmers were there. So were chamber of commerce representatives, food distributors, chefs, and farmland preservation groups. Rounding out the many voices involved were also health professionals, educators, and childcare leaders. USDA-Rural Development sponsored the summit while the Michigan Land Use Institute and planning partners organized the event and Black Star Farms provided facility support.

By the end of the day, the regional network of food and farm innovators committed to a number of powerful next steps, including:

  • Bringing the region's many farmers markets together to share ideas and resources and build capacity and coordination. Farmer Brenin Wertzroth and Rob Baciagalupi of Traverse City's Downtown Development Authority, which hosts the city's Sarah Hardy Farmers Market, will head up that collaboration.
  • Establishing a formal sustainable agriculture training and apprenticeship program in the region. Rob Sirrine of Leelanau County Extension, Marguerite Cotto of Northwestern Michigan College, and Tom Emling of Michigan State University will work together on the higher-education setup of such a program. Janie McNabb of Michigan Works! and Susan Cocciarelli of MSU will pursue the corresponding apprenticeship component. At the same time, farmer Marty Heller and a number of colleagues also discussed steps for building a farmer residency program in the region to help new farmers get their business chops down before having to buy land.
  • Taking cooking classes to the people with a mobile teaching kitchen and volunteer chef corps that would make the rounds of farmers markets, community events, and schools. Chef Eric Patterson, of Cooks House and Wellington Market, is the ringleader of this new project.
  • Exploring how area farms might build sales potential by putting some of their products together under a regional brand. An advisory group of producers, buyers, and distributors, which started taking shape over the past year in conjunction with the Food and Farming Network, will guide the effort. Nikki Rothwel, of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station, and Patty Cantrell, of Michigan Land Use Institute, will coordinate.

Also in the works are a seed saver's directory, a storytelling project, and ideas for mending fences between bigger conventional farms and smaller, organic farms. As Patty Wheeler, leader of the farmer-to-farmer idea said: "Conventional and organic farms have to get away from being mean to each other."

Action items from Friday's summit revolve around building new economic opportunities for farms of all sizes and types, particularly as consumers increasingly demand to know more about where their food comes from, who produced it, and how they produced it.

For example, if area farms sold more of their produce to fresh markets, they could increase annual farm income in the region by as much as $11.6 million. That's according to the report, Northwest Michigan's Farm Factor, produced by the Michigan Land Use Institute for the 2009 summit. In addition to market development, summit participants are keen to build the health and wellness of area residents through greater availability and access to high-quality foods.

Local food is a big part of building the taste and place connections that lead to greater community and personal health. Derek Bailey, tribal chairman for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, explained that northwest Michigan residents will be better off when families can again name the farmers behind the food on their plates. "We need to get to that place again."

Action steps developed at the summit are part of realizing that future. They come on top of a number of accomplishments among those involved in the Network over the past year. Developments in 2009 included new micro-finance opportunities for area farms, a collaborative of groups focused on increasing new farmers' access to land, and significant policy engagement. Network members were involved in informing congressional food safety legislation, developing new state-level rules for local zoning of farm markets, and crafting a statewide Good Food Charter of policy priorities to guide incoming lawmakers and Michigan's next governor.



“The breadth of activity, and depth of commitment here is amazing,” said Hans Voss, executive director of the Michigan Land Use Institute. “It says so much about the strength of this region and our ability to make good things happen.”

 Summit participants also celebrated two national accolades northwest Michigan, which show how much traction the area already has toward its purpose of building healthy food and profitable farming into the region's future.

 One is the news last week that Livability magazine put Traverse City at the top of its list of the 10 best small-city finds for great foodie culture. The other is American Farmland Trust's recognition of Peninsula Township's work on Old Mission Peninsula as one of 10 farmland protection trailblazers profiled in AFT's national magazine.

For more information about the Food and Farming Network, check out the Web site, at www.FoodandFarming.org, or contact convener Patty Cantrell at the Michigan Land Use Institute, 231-941-6584. For more information about the region's food and farm economy, see the report, Northwest Michigan's Farm Factor.

The Northwest Michigan Food and Farming Network is composed of working groups, which form a coordinating council. Below is the list of working group chairs.

  • FARMLAND -- Ellen Fred, Attorney

  • FINANCE/FUNDING
 -- Chris Wendel, MI Small Business & Tech. Development Corp.

  • PRODUCERS -- Jim Bardenhagen, James Bardenhagen Farm

  • BUYERS -- Jody Gagnier, Oryana Food Cooperative (acting chair)

  • HEALTH/YOUTH -- Diane Conners, Michigan Land Use Institute
  • EDUCATION/TRAINING -- Rob Sirrine, Leelanau Extension and Marguerite Cotto, Northwestern Michigan College
  • INFRASTRUCTURE -- Veronica Moyer, iOmni LLC


-- Patty Cantrell, Michigan Land Use Institute

About MLUI:
The Michigan Land Use Institute is an independent, nonprofit research, educational, and service organization founded in 1995 and based in Traverse City, MI. More than 3,000 households, businesses, and organizations have joined the Institute in support of its mission to establish an approach to economic development that strengthens communities, enhances opportunity, and protects Michigan's unmatched natural resources.