A Friday release from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development announced that Governor Gretchen Whitmer proclaimed March as Michigan Food and Agriculture Month.

The release stated that throughout the month, MDARD will be highlighting unique aspects of Michigan’s food and agriculture sector while featuring how the industry positively impacts, improves and protects the lives of Michigan residents.

“Production agriculture, food processing and related businesses comprise a large portion of the state’s workforce, employing 805,000 people or 17.2% of our population, and contributing $104.7 billion to our state’s economy each year,” the release stated.

It goes on to state that the positive impact of Michigan agriculture is felt year round, but each March special attention is paid to the farmers and food processors that are the heart and soul of West Michigan and so many communities across this state,” Randy Thelen, President & CEO of The Right Place, said.

That leaves Upper Peninsula’s growers out of the special attention.

According to most sources, “West” Michigan includes Muskegon, Ottawa, Allegan and Kent counties of the western side of the southern section of the Lower Peninsula. West Michigan’s agribusiness sector, reports The Right Place, produces one-third of Michigan’s total agricultural sales and that sector is among the most productive and diverse regions in the state that is second only to California in its agricultural diversity. Diversity includes asparagus, black and small red peas, marigolds and squash. Additionally, Farm Flavor, in partnership with MDARD, reported on Jan. 16, 2024, that Michigan ranks No. 6 in the nation for milk production.

“Home to an inventory of about 432,000 milk cows,” Farm Flavor stated, “the state produced more than 11.7 billion pounds of milk in 2022, equivalent to about 27,430 pounds of milk per cow.”

The other side of that picture is not quite so rosy when referring to Michigan State University Extension’s Nov. 2018 report, “A look at agriculture statistics in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.”

In the report, author James Isleib states that as of Sept. 19, 2018, the number of permitted Grade-A dairy farms in Michigan dropped to 1,315 between 2017 and 2018, nearly a 10% decline. Of the permitted Grade-A dairy farms, 69 are located in the Upper Peninsula, reflecting at least a similar decline in dairy farming businesses.

“Quite a change from the approximately 250 dairy farms across the Upper Peninsula 30 years ago,” Isleib commented.

That does not mean that the Upper Peninsula does not have its own agricultural economy. In fact, the industrial agriculture of the Lower Peninsula may be the impetus for the UP’s increasing number of agriculture businesses.

A July 2021 Rural Insights report by Michael Broadway states that small farms in the UP are increasing significantly.

In 1992, the UP contained 231 farms of less than 49 acres, Broadway said. By 2017 the equivalent figure was 785, with most of this increase occurring among farms of 10-49 acres in size; for the 50 to 179 acres size, the number of farms rose from 587 to 841. However, among larger farms of 180 acres and more their numbers declined, from 870 to 688.

Broadway next addressed the question of why is the number of small farms in the UP increasing. He found a number of factors, including economies of scale.

Since the late 1980s, increasing concerns have been raised about the viability of so-called industrialized agriculture with its dependence on chemicals and adverse environmental impacts, Broadway wrote. Organic agriculture is seen by some as a more sustainable method of producing food.

Adopting hoop houses and greenhouses has made farming more viable while also increasing productivity; these improvements positively impact soil and water while reducing nutrient and pesticide usage, Broadway said.

Just as significantly, demand for locally produced food is driven by consumers’ interest in Community Supported Agriculture programs, whereby participants provide upfront funding to a farmer who in return provides a weekly box of fresh vegetables once harvesting begins.

The data suggests that, as opposed to the agribusiness in the Lower Peninsula that exports much of its product, farmers in the Upper Peninsula are addressing UP food insecurities while avoiding chemically based production. They are not in it for the money.

Broadway reported that in 2017, the average net cash farm income in Alger, Iron, Keweenaw and Marquette counties was negative (after farm production expenses are subtracted from farm sales and other income sources). Among counties where the average cash farm income was positive, it ranged from a low of $455 (Dickinson) to a high of $26,537 (Menominee), emphasizing that most farmers, like many of their counterparts outside the UP, are dependent upon off-farm income for their survival. That is nothing new to farmers in the Upper Peninsula.