Our Taste the Local Difference program links shoppers and retail buyers to area farms. Healthy Food for All helps families, schools, and other institutions serve fresh local food. Get Farming! connects farmers to farmland and business resources. Our Entrepreneurial Agriculture program makes the case for local food as economic development, and helps coordinate northwest Michigan's Food and Farming Network.
Janice Benson
Taste the Local Difference Project Director
janice@mlui.org
Diane Conners
Senior Policy Specialist
Healthy Food for All diane@mluil.org
Northwest Michigan's Farm Factor PDF
Agriculture contributes substantially to the economy of the six-county northwest Lower Michigan region. Ample opportunities also exist to significantly expand its economic footprint.
See the Local Difference TextPDF
Regional food systems become essential ingredient for Michigan's future
Perspectives from Surveys of Northwest Michigan Growers and Buyers PDF
The northwest Michigan region is home to almost a quarter-million people and hosts around 50 percent more seasonal residents and tourists through the year. It also has a diverse and unique agricultural industry that is struggling as rapid development inflates land values and economic pressures drive down prices for agricultural products. The region's growing population and vibrant tourist industry, however, together make a potentially large market for local farm products. To the extent that local growers can better access this market, greater local food sales could help the agricultural industry survive, and even thrive, in the face of population growth and development.
Mar 12, 2012
Know Your Farmer
The Michigan Land Use Institute is launching a new Know Your Farmer marketing tool as a companion to the successful Taste the Local...more Comments | Leave a comment
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2011 Michigan Land Use Institute.
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