Urban Agriculture Meets MI Right to Farm Act

Urban agriculture is one of those things that virtually everyone recognizes as a powerful way to strengthen Michigan.

Urban agriculture brings healthy food to neighborhoods without quality grocery stores. It brings neighbors together, which strengthens investments that families and businesses make in a community’s future. Urban agriculture also brings opportunities to young people who can get started farming at relatively low cost on vacant lots.

To move forward, however, Michigan’s city governments need to be comfortable with agriculture in their densely populated areas. One of the first challenges they’re facing is a state law called the Michigan Right to Farm Act, which supersedes any local say in the matter of how a farm operates.

Pure Michigan promotion opening to agriculture

Les Timmer’s southeast Michigan carrot farm on Muck Road near Imlay City is about as pure Michigan as you can get.

But like most of Michigan’s agricultural products, Timmer’s carrots sit side by side in grocery stores with carrots from California and elsewhere. It’s not easy for Timmer’s Michigan carrots to stand out in that global commodity crowd.

That could change, however, because the Michigan Economic Development Corporation is now making the state’s highly successful Pure Michigan logo available for free to farmers and other businesses.

State leaders take interest in food hubs

Communities across Michigan are in varying stages of developing regional food hubs for business incubation, local food distribution, and more. Now the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is taking notice of this powerful undercurrent in one of the state’s largest industries.