Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently signed a new program, Farm to Family, into the state’s 2025 budget.
Director of Michigan's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Tim Boring, described the program as an attempt to strengthen the state's food system and better understand the value of locally produced food and their health implications.
“It’s an effort to continue strengthening food production here and address some of the known challenges we have in food distribution and processing of locally grown foods and improve ability for food access,” said Boring.
According to Boring, Michigan schools, hospitals, grocery stores and restaurants have challenges sourcing local food despite the state’s unique ability to grow a diverse supply.
The program will still focus on building diversity within the food systems through maintaining soil conditions, strengthening supply chains and keeping the consumers in mind throughout the processes.
Boring says the COVID-19 pandemic helped the state learn and understand the need for smaller supply chains after facing difficulties across various steps of the previous process. The pandemic also emphasized the amount of transport needed and the carbon footprint being created.
Boring says that food costs are a known issue in the state and has influenced them to put the food production sites in rural areas.
“We want to make sure that we get processing and distribution in rural areas to augment and support economic development, but at the same,” Boring said. “We want to make sure that we’re managing food costs and making sure that consumer expenditures are under control.”
Boring says the state hopes to see many economic opportunities created or supported by this program. He says some of the opportunities they are prioritizing are higher value per acre and more involvement of “farm families” and second-generation farms.
The opportunities created in these rural areas “gives people a reason to invest in and build their careers and their families in rural areas,” according to Boring. He says the Farm to Family program is a step toward a “brighter future for Michigan.”
A roundtable was recently held to discuss and develop the program. With representation from the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems, Fair Food Network, Taste the Local Difference and Groundworks Center for Resilient Communities.
In Cadillac, agriculture is a staple business and the backbone of many families. But, as the country's food supply system changed and locally sourced food products became a rarity, the northern Michigan community faced the same challenges as other areas.
Mary Galvanek, co-owner of the Cadillac Farmers Market and local farm and nature-based childcare service Forest & Farm, moved to Cadillac roughly five years ago and realized first-hand that the area was lacking access to locally grown and produced food.
For her, vegetables could be found at various farms and roadside stands but only after visiting multiple towns. Galvanek also noted that products like butter, milk, meat and bread couldn’t be found at the farms and stands.
“Who’s got the gas money and the time to do that for your groceries every week?” said Galvanek. “That’s why I felt extremely passionate about expanding the Cadillac Farmer Market and making it a one-stop-shop for all local groceries.”
Along with Chere Elenbaas and Emily Miller, Galvanek owns and operates the Cadillac Farmers Market to bring locally grown and produced food to Cadillac every week.
With prior knowledge of running farmers markets, Galvanek gathered all the farms she could find to sell at the market. Since her work with the Cadillac market began five years ago, it has grown from three vendors to roughly 15 every Tuesday and Friday.
Galvanek says there has been a “positive snowball effect” since she started the local food movement in Wexford County, inspiring local farmers to expand their production and skills.
“The farms were already here, and [we] brought them all together and sold so well for them that now those farms are getting licensed to do more things,” said Galvanek. “They are becoming stronger because of the sales from the Cadillac Farmers Market and then the farmers market receives more local food because of it, right?”
“It takes one generation of a family to stop doing something for that skill to be lost in the lineage,” says Galvanek. “We have had factory farms and corporations feeding us for more than one generation now.”
Galvanek says there is a clear disconnect between food sources and consumers. In her experience, people are surprised when they see food being grown and harvested or learn about what's in their food.
According to Galvanek, a recent TikTok trend of people being sold “fake produce” from grocery stores across the country emphasizes the disconnect. She explained the “fake food” videos as the result of a new chemical spray being used to keep produce fresh longer.
“These things are being sprayed on all of our food that goes to the grocery store and it is literally changing the natural components of that piece of food so that [it] will not rot, it’s essentially turning it to rubber,” explained Galvanek.
A simpler reason that locally sourced produce is needed in communities is the effect that transporting food has on nutritional value. According to Galvanek, a piece of produce can lose between 50 and 70 percent of its nutrition within 24 to 72 hours of being harvested.
“The food that you're seeing in the grocery store has only a fraction of the amount of nutrition that the food that sits at your farmers market has that was harvested that morning or the night before,” said Galvanek.
Galvanek says the need for locally sourced food continues to grow in America as chemicals and preservatives continue to impact food products and farmlands.
“In a long-gated process we have to choose that we are important, that our children are important, and our lineage is important enough for us to educate ourselves on something that seems foreign,” Galvanek said. “If we aren’t going to push ourselves over that then we won't be able to help our lineage remain healthy and strong for generations.”
Galvanek says she knows how “intense” people often think she is with her beliefs on the topic, but she says the locals' farms need that kind of support in order to give back to their communities.
“Having a strong base of local food is very important, we cannot depend on factory farms and corporations to feed us if something goes wrong in the factory, farming land or the corporate food chain,” Galvanek said.
At the market on Tuesday, July 30, Maria Sierra from Sierra Farms in Cadillac shared that the market has helped her expand the farms production. Sierra also said that access to locally grown food is important because of the "fresh, home-grown, healthy" options provided.
