ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has announced new investments to support U.P. organizations.
During a visit to the U.P. State Fair, MDARD Director Tim Boring announced new investments that will support local food and agriculture processing, build new infrastructure, and expand access to healthy foods. Out of the 20 grants announced, six will directly impact the Upper Peninsula.
· BigGoat Farm (Houghton) – $100,000 to help open the Keweenaw Peninsula’s first licensed Grade “A” goat dairy. The new dairy will serve as a production hub and visitor destination.
· First Catch LLC (L’Anse) – $100,000 to help design, prepare, and install a fully functional, self-contained refrigerated fish processing facility on tribal land to support year-round commercial fishing, value-added processing, and direct retail sales.
· Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (Baraga) – $100,000 to help acquire refrigerated transportation and improve food distribution capabilities across the Upper Peninsula.
· Peace Pie Company (Marquette) – $84,753 to support bakehouse improvements that will boost production, expand product range, and increase procurement of Michigan-made ingredients.
· S&L Lumber Co LLC (Iron River) – $100,000 to help modernize the sawmill’s primary breakdown line, which transforms logs into boards and other materials. The project will boost throughput, reduce downtime, and increase accuracy.
· Superior Culture LLC (Marquette) – $100,000 to help construct an addition to the taproom that will consolidate all production operations at a single site while expanding food and beverage service capacity.
According to Boring, the investments are designed to boost the local economy.
“It is spurring that economic development then in a market-based way for the folks that are growing those foods,” he said. “When those operations are doing well, there’s then cascading impact throughout the supply chains, ultimately helping not only the growers, but the people that are on the recipient end of consuming those products.”
Many of the projects selected to receive grants are improving food security in their communities.
“Our mission on a daily basis is improving quality of life for the people of Michigan,” said Boring. “That certainly has a big role of helping support farmers and land-based industries. We recently implemented the Good Food for Michigan project that’s doing some work on the eastern end of the U.P. of connecting senior centers with locally produced foods. There’s a lot of institutional procurement that we’re doing of making sure schools, hospitals have access to locally produced foods. At the end of the day, it’s connecting consumers to their local agricultural production systems.”
MDARD states that under Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s leadership and thanks to ongoing bipartisan support from the legislature, it has invested more than $20.8 million in food, agriculture, forestry, and conservation projects throughout the U.P. since 2019. Across the state, MDARD has awarded more than $276 million since 2019 to help Michigan businesses and communities invest in local food production, build infrastructure, and strengthen the state’s food, agriculture, and forestry economy.
