http://detnews.com/article/20090504/BIZ/905040349/Agriculture-industry-holds-up-even-as-Michigan-economy-declines

Agriculture industry holds up even as Michigan economy declines

Jennifer Youssef / The Detroit News

Michigan’s agricultural industry remains as steady as a farmer’s plow, bucking the norm in a state where manufacturing and other sectors of its fragile economy continue to shrink.

The state’s overall agricultural industry — which includes not only farming but also food processing and biofuels, wineries and beer-making — grew 12 percent to $71.3 billion in revenue in 2007, following several years of single-digit growth; 2008 figures are not yet available.

“We’ll see stable growth, slow growth,” said Don Koivisto, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture. “The trend is not downward at all. We’ll continue to plod ahead in 2009.”

Major companies like Kellogg Co. and Gerber Products Co. are in the midst of multimillion dollar expansions that will boost their businesses, create new jobs, and mean more sales for Michigan farmers who supply them.

Agri-energy firms such as Alternative Green Energy LLC and Renewafuel LLC also are spending tens of millions of dollars to create and sell alternative energy sources such as ethanol, a corn-based auto fuel.

Some 100 agri-food businesses have started in Michigan during the past five years, according to the MDA.

Agriculture remains one of the best ways for Michigan to diversify its troubled economy, experts say. While consumers may delay big ticket purchases, they have to eat and, in many cases, are shopping for locally grown food and products, anecdotal evidence suggests.

“Food is a good industry to be in because it’s something very predictable,” said Bill Knudson, an agricultural marketing and economics instructor at Michigan State University.

Agriculture is Michigan’s second- largest industry, behind manufacturing.

Michigan farms saw sales skyrocket 53 percent during the five-year period from 2002 to 2007, with revenues jumping from $3.77 billion to $5.75 billion, according to a report by the Michigan State University Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources. The agri-foods sector, which includes commodity production, food processing, manufacturing and retail, will create 12,000 to 23,000 new jobs each year until 2011 in the state, a 2007 report by the center found.

Michigan’s overall agricultural economy expanded nearly six times faster than the general economy (11.9 percent versus 2 percent) between 2006 and 2007. Revenue figures for 2008 are not available yet, but are expected to show some growth over 2007. However, 2009 won’t be as robust because the agricultural industry is closely tied to the credit market, said Jim Byrum, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association. If growers and entrepreneurs can’t get credit, they can’t expand their farms, buy new equipment or livestock, or make other improvements.

Byrum said exporting is the only sector unlikely to expand in 2009 because of a drop in worldwide demand and a weaker dollar. Food processing and other types of agriculture-based companies are expected to continue growing, she said. Several agri-businesses, including Gerber and Kellogg, are expanding operations to better compete in a global economy.

“That’s where we have tremendous potential,” he said.

Fremont-based Gerber is spending $75 million to modernize its manufacturing facility, creating 200 new jobs. The company buys agricultural products from more than 200 Michigan growers.

Kellogg is expanding its W.K. Kellogg Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Battle Creek, creating 300 jobs. Products created at the institute are produced and marketed worldwide. About 18 percent of the grain, flour, fruit, honey and other food products used in Kellogg’s products are from Michigan.

Near Lansing, the Michigan Milk Producers Association is expanding its processing facility. Expected to be completed in January 2010, the project will create 10 jobs at the facility, 166 indirect jobs and 344 construction jobs, generating $182.6 million for the state, according to the association.

Milk is the state’s No. 1 agricultural commodity. The project will save Michigan milk producers money because they won’t have to pay the extra cost of hauling their milk to a plant in another state.

“If there was no facility here, the milk would have to be shipped to Wisconsin or New York,” said Clay Galarneau, director of sales and operations. “It gives more money back to the farmers.”Renewafuel LLC is building a $10 million plant near Marquette to make biomass-dense fuel cubes, which can be made of material such as wood, crops, manure or garbage and used to create energy as a substitute for coal. Renewafuel also is investing nearly $1 million to expand its Battle Creek facility. The company says twenty-five jobs will be created.

University of Michigan economist Don Grimes wouldn’t have considered agriculture the state’s saving grace until he attended an economic outlook conference in November and saw the numbers.

“It’s not going to be huge,” he said, “but in rural areas, it could be vital.”

and this from the Free Press

http://freep.com/article/20090504/COL27/905040371/Farming+takes+root+in+Detroit

Farming takes root in Detroit

Hope spreads along with the compost

BY BILL McGRAW • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • May 4, 2009

Springtime in Detroit: Shirtsleeves, baseball, the Stanley Cup playoffs — and, in a carefully cultivated corner on the city’s east side, people composting with rakes as the green shoots of a garlic bulb poke out of the earth.

A Southfield businessman made news last month when he proposed turning huge tracts of the city’s vacant land into a commercial farming operation. But here, on a corner lot bordered by Meldrum Street and an alley, is the true nature of Detroit’s growing agricultural movement: people preparing a small plot of land for planting.

On a recent Saturday, about a dozen volunteers from Detroit and the suburbs converged on the Earthworks Urban Farm for some old-fashioned agriculture.

“I think we can come a little bit more over to this edge,” Patrick Crouch, Earthworks’ manager, told Mike and Lauren Madison, a father-daughter team of rakers from Grosse Pointe Woods.

“We’re mostly spreading compost today,” Crouch said. “We’re getting ready. We’re taking advantage of the available labor.”

Earthworks, part of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, comprises three parcels totaling 1 1/2 acres that yield lettuce, carrots, peas, beets, cabbage and other small-scale crops.

In 2008, the 11-year-old Earthworks turned out more than 6,000 pounds of produce, 900 pounds of honey, 2,000 tins of hand balm and 1,000 jars of jam. It also distributed more than 100,000 transplants to 600 community, family or school gardens in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck.

Some Detroit gardens just grow food. Earthworks has an underlying philosophy that entails social justice, community building and connection to the environment.

“The new life that’s here is so inspirational,” said Earthworks’ Lisa Richter, as she stood in a toasty greenhouse, surrounded by seedlings.

As Detroiters grapple with how to build a future in a factory town where the jobs continue to disappear, the agricultural movement figures to play a role in the debate.

Crouch questioned whether commercial farms spread over large plots of land are the best way to go.

“I see that as community annihilation and not community development,” he said.

—————————————–

Urban Farming and Agriculture are going to be the future if Detroit and Michigan as a whole is going to survive. When the bottom falls out, go back to basics: make your own food, and go from there. I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t be able to grasp this concept.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Gayle Green, the Chief Academic officer of the Macomb Intermediate School district. We talked about the district, the good and bad points and what we can do about it. We also discussed the MISD’s idea for the middle college, which has been a campaign point of mine since the beginning, so I was very excited to see someone else has the same vision for higher achievement and standards that I do. Board President Earl Rickman did a lot of lobbynig to get MC Schools into a Gates Foundation grant that will use data to drive decisions, as MC will be one of six districts in the country to do this. I can only hope that he will do what he can to get this middle college into Mount Clemens as well.

I still have yard signs left if anybody wants them, and I also need volunteers to work the polls on election day. So if you have a couple of hours free, please email me at john@electjohncruz.com

The exciting news is what you can’t see out in public: the reaction to the mailers I’ve sent out. So far, the response has been astounding. It humbles and delights me to see that there are so many people who are responding to my message of building a community and common sense education.

Many of you have decided to call me personally to show your support, discuss the issues, or just tell me what’s on your mind. Well folks, that’s why I put my phone number on the campaign literature: so you can do just that.

Thank you all for your kind words and I look forward to speaking with as many of you as I can.

The Election is exactly 3 weeks away today. Let’s knock it out of the park together!

For those interested, we are doing the only actual Lit drop of the campaign on Saturday at 12:30. It will only take a few hours and won’t require any real walking whatsoever. Only about 200 pieces to drop off, you will have a map and directions.

If you can please help out, email me at john@electjohncruz.com for the details.

We discussed the current Middle School situation, the moving of the kids to the secondary complex, and what challenges lie ahead for Mount Clemens schools and the Middle School in particular. I am glad I could be given the opportunity and appreciate Mr. Reeves’ honesty and frankness about the situations at hand.

I also decided to go drop in on High School Fine Arts Coordinator Lissa Volz, who sees things from the eyes of an educator and a parent. She has always been very frank with me over the years and this meeting was no exception. Overall, it was great discussion all around.

Also, thanks to everyone who keeps contributing via paypal, every little bit goes a long way! So thank you so much.

I hope to see you all there.

Akindele has been a great advisor to me and my campaign, and I’m proud to have him as a supporter.

As an IT professional, I know what it means to be on the edge of new technology. I know those who embrace it can market that and use it to become better organizations and attract new people. Those who are reluctant are viewed as out of touch, slow to adapt, and unable to commit. For Mount Clemens to be viewed as a competitive district on the cutting edge of technology, we need to make sure we are doing just that

It’s great that the school district is talking about doing an emailing list for parents, but realistically, this kind of thing should have been taken care of 6 or 7 years ago. We didn’t need to wait around to see if this email thing was going to take off before we decided to embrace it.

Here’s my plan for bringing technology up to par for the 21st century at Mount Clemens:

• Comprehensive emailing system. With options for alerts for school events, parent events, sporting events, etc. Let’s make the most use of this to commuicate with the parents and students. Afterall, the more communication we can have the more feedback we can have. And with that, district improvements.
• Embrace online learning with proper application. Moodle is a powerful, robust, open-source (aka, free) software product that makes online learning easy and interactive for students and teachers. This software is used by over 50,000 sites as well as many colleges and Universities (Oakland University, for example). We can make use of this at Mount Clemens with a very minimal cost (infrastructure and training, the former we should already have in place). Learn more about moodle here.
• Make use of Twitter. Twitter started off as a small web service allowing people to tell their friends what they were up to, but has spread to reach the potential of a mass communications medium. While some colleges and universities (such as Baker College) will make use of SMS text messaging to relay important messages regarding school closings, the ones more serious about it are using Twitter. Wayne State uses twitter to alert people of open houses, athletic events, academic events, class closing, etc. Best of all, we can get honest, real-time feedback right from the users. To see an example of how Wayne State uses Twitter effectively, click here.
• Make use of open systems where appropriate. Open source operating systems, programs and systems have wide appeal for a low up front cost and being community driven - so there are no sales or support contracts to get suckered into from a financial standpoint. Many companies are now using open systems, so in preparation, Mount Clemens students should have experience with this.
• Make more moves to web-based applications where we can. Too many times, systems can’t be upgraded because old software won’t run on new ones, or will require an expensive new upgrade. Web based applications are much more scalable and have a longer life span, as they can be used through any browser, regardless of how old or new the computer using it is. This will allow us to have the best possible programs available for teachers and students while keeping costs down at the same time.
• Have classes that encourage students to research, discover, and put to use new technology methods. Encourage the teachers to do the same thing. To think forward, we need to stay on top of new technologies so we can brainstorm ways to put them to use in Mount Clemens Schools
• Find cutting edge, cost effective ways of bringing interactive education to the classroom.

Let’s work together to give Mount Clemens the make-over it deserves: A district of cutting edge technology that is not afraid to embrace new ways of using our resources to make education better.