Get Involved

You can join with others who have shown their support for the Michigan Good Food Charter by filling out and sending in the Resolution of Support Form or encouraging your organization to do so!

CLICK to download: Resolution of Support Form

Or fill out resolution online

Resolution of Support Signatories

• American Cancer Society - Great Lakes Division, Voncile Brown-Miller, Manager of Healthy Disparity Programs
• AppleSchram Orchard, Jane Bush, Owner
• Bay Shore Farms, Inc., James Sattelberg, Owner/Operator
• Blandford Nature Center, Annoesjka Steinman, Executive Director
• Catholic Charities Mr. Rogers Program, Greg Gaines, Program Director
• Center for Economic Security, Christopher Bedford, President
• Center for Managing Chronic Disease, University of Michigan, Noreeen M. Clark, PhD
• Cherry Capital Foods, Evan Smith, Senior Operations Manager
• Core Connections, Patty Cantrell
• Detroit Local Initiatives Support Council, Tahirih Ziegler, Executive Director
• Eastern Market Corporation, Dan Carmody, President
• Eat Local Food LLC, Joan Tobin Rozelle, Owner
• Ecology Center, Hillary Bisnett, Healthy Food in Health Care Coordinator
• Erie Bread Company, Nick Seccia, Chef/Owner
• Fair Food Matters, Paul A. Stermer, Executive Director
• Food Gatherers, Eileen Spring, CEO
• Food Security Fund, Gordon B. Moeller, Founder
• Forgotten Harvest, Susan Goodell, President & CEO
• Nancy Glass, Schoolcraft, MI
• Gleaners Community Food Bank of SE Michigan, W. DeWayne Wells, President
• Greenbush Farms, Dolce Vita Goat Dairy, Sue Spagnuolo, Owner
• Growing Hope, Inc., Amanda M. Edmonds, Executive Director
• Hillside Homestead, Susan Odom, Owner
• Houghton-Jones Neighborhood Task Force, Inc., Bakari M. McClendon, President/CEO
• Jackson Public Schools, Brant Russell, Food Service Director
• Steve and Sue LaJoice, East Jordan, MI
• Lakeview School District, Paul Yettaw, Food Service Director
• Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University, Adesoji Adelaja, Director
• Lawrence Farmers Market, Jan Petersen, Market Master
• Leadership Council of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sr. Joan Mumaw, IHM, Vice President
• Local Orbit, Erika Block, CEO
• Mattawan Artisan Creamery, Anne Cavanagh
• Michigan Association of Chiropractors, Kristine Dowell, Executive Director
• Michigan Department of Agriculture, Don Koivisto, Director
• Michigan Department of Community Health, Janet Olszewski, Director
• Michigan Grocers Association, Linda Gobler, President/CEO
• Michigan Health and Hospital Association, Paige Hathaway, Coordinator, Organization & Strategic Development
• Michigan Horticulture Teachers Association, Anna Blight, President
• Michigan Land Use Institute, Hans Voss, Executive Director
• Michigan Organic Food & Farm Alliance, Yvette Berman, Co-Chair
• Michigan's Guide to Local Cooking, Susan Clemente
• Michigan Shares, Scott White, Founder
• Northwest Michigan Food & Farming Network, Jim Sluyter, Convener
• Originz, LLC, Joe Colyn, President
• People's Food Co-op of Kalamazoo, Chris Dilley, General Manager
• Prima Civitas Foundation, Steven Bennett, Executive Director
• Slow Food Detroit, Stacy Ordakowski, Chairwoman
• Sparrow Hospital, Michele Nikolai, Clinical Nutrition Manager
• The Starting Block, Inc., Ron Steiner, Executive Director
• Texas Township Farmers' Market (Kalamazoo, MI), Donna McClurkan, Manager
• Brian Thomas, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University Center, MI
• April L. Wilbur, MSU Master Gardener
• Youth Karate-Ka Harvesting Earth Educational Farm, Jacky and Dora King, Co-Directors
• Ypsilanti Food Cooperative, Corinne Sikorski, General Manager

Announcing a funding opportunity for Michigan Good Food Regional Meetings!

Up to $800 dollars for each of up to 10 regions across Michigan is available to support time and expenses related to hosting a meeting to organize locally around the Michigan Good Food Charter. These meetings could be facilitated discussions to identify top regional food system priorities, candidate forums, or brainstorming sessions to identify how to take local stories to policy and decision makers. Or your community may have other ideas! Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis through September 30, 2010.

For more details, see the Request for Proposals HERE.

Regions with Local Organizing Efforts

NW Lower MI: Contact Jim Sluyter at #231-941-6584 or jimsluyter AT mlui DOT org

 

To really make good food a priority in Michigan, we all need to talk to others about why it matters as much as we can.

As a guide, HERE are some simple talking points about why we need a charter, what you can do to support it, and how it came about. Feel free to come up with your own too! You can share your ideas with the rest of us by commenting below.

FOODSPEAK is a listserv that connects growers and consumers and all in between. To join the FOODSPEAK Listserv, enter the requested information and click on "Sign Up" to submit your request.

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We want to know what you think! Check out the Michigan Good Food Charter - or the shorter Executive Summary - and share your thoughts on why these issues matter or how we can take up these priorities in communities across Michigan.

 

To make comments, you must login, If you have not done so already, please create an account by clicking HERE. After you have created an account, you can login. You will not receive mass emails from us if you create an account. To join our email listserv, see the Join the FOODSPEAK Listserv option below.

on 30-Jul-2010 09:53:50 by Traci from Lake Orion In response to Laura's comment... there is something similar in Grand Rapids. Check out www.westmichigancoop.com. Each member picks up their products from a central location, but "shops" on-line from a large group of local farmers. I've met many people that are involved and it has become very successful for both the farmers and consumers. A delivery service could always be added to a similar program. Just takes time and interested people!

on 05-Jul-2010 11:22:07 by Laura T. from Bloomfield Hills Just wondering if anybody has seen the website www.ctffe.com. In Connecticut, this group will, once a week, go around to the local organic farms and select the produce/meat people have ordered through their website. It then is delivered to their doorstep. Wish this was available in Michigan - a program like this could employ many drivers/sorters.

on 23-Apr-2010 16:34:52 by Chris from Leland, Mi Blue Label Statewide Marketing Idea The idea behind the 'Blue Label' concept is to develop a market for small and medium scale farmers that will return prices higher than commodity prices, but will be inexpensive enough for all Michigan residents to participate in. In order to command a higher price, there will be a sustainablility aspect to the program, and also a statewide/ locality (inner state regions- Southeast, Northwest, etc.) component. If someone walked down the isle at the supermarket, and looked at all the beef, when they see beef with the Blue Label, they would know that it was produced in Michigan, following certain standards. If that label ( a blue map/ outline of Michigan) had red on the southwest section of the label, people would know that it was raised in southeast Michigan. If it had red on the northwest section of the state (the rest of the label being blue,) the purchaser would know that it was from the northwest. This would allow for preferential purchase of locally grown products. There would also be a sticker to indicate certified organic Blue Label products. Retailers are looking for ways to sell loacally produced/ sustainable goods. This may be a way to get shelfspace(free, hopefully) in supermarkets for local products. There would need to be a way to aggregate goods so that we could fulfill the volume needs to keep space in the supermarkets. This would lend itself to farmers being able to produce higher volumes but sill have a good return, and possibly spend less time marketing. For example, I can sell five head of cattle at a high price direct to consumer, but to sell 10 or 15 head would be a lot of extra marketing work. I have the capacity to produce 20 head a year, for me it would work to sell five direct, and 15 through Blue Label. So cooperatives such as Organic Valley could be models for our program. -There will be infastructure issues (needs for regional processing facilities for different goods (freezi

on 20-Apr-2010 09:29:11 by Chris from Leland, Mi In particular I like the Research-Based agenda items #23 and 24. The description for #24 sets forth a very logical, feasible set of ideas/ process for achieving the goal of developing systems to collect and share market data. More suggestions on how to accomplish #23 might be helpful. I myself can get behind this charter, however to fully feel comfortable advocating every angle of it, I would like to see the definition of 'affordable' hashed out more in the future. I like how the definition used (the Kellogg definition) broadens the Good Food movement beyond just fancy food for the rich. However, I feel that 'affordable' could be fairly easily associated with 'cheap' if it is not somewhat clearly defined. I believe that farmers involved in the Good Food movement will need to obtain prices that are a bit higher than their general commodities- for example, if we could have made a living selling potatoes locally/ regionally at the current commodity prices, we would not have gotten out of the potato business in 1985, and would still be selling locally grown potatoes to area stores. I think that our definition of Good Food needs to incorporate a higher price for the farmer in order for the movement to be successful. However, that price also needs to be low enough for average people (all people) to participate in, or, again, the movement will not be sucessful. Chris

on 20-Apr-2010 08:59:11 by Jason Rowntree from MSU Michigan Good Food lays out a clear plan for improving economics for food production and consumer health over the next ten years. I can support this document. One aspect to consider from an entrepeneurial standpoint is the potential for adding general state budget funds to each county in Michigan in order for farmers to compete for grants, typically with a match of 20-50%. This program has been hugely successful in Kentucky, Tennessee and other states as well. I read the ten million dollar figure used to help spur food system in frastructure. Last year Tennessee added 25 million into their state budget for spuring local food production, the multipliers are robust and their legislators understand this. Thus, I think ten million is too low. The other challenge I see with the future of local and regional food systems is access for younger producers (animal standpoint). Many of Michigan's acres are in corn, soybeans and wheat, however a portion of these acreages are not suited to the above and would be much more productive in pasture. However, from experience, I can say that because of subsidy structure, even marginal land is unaffordable from a lease standpoint. Land that should be $25-30/ac is 4-5 times this amount because of its value in row crops. If the land is marginal and crop doesn't come to fruition, then the farm collects insurance. Either way, they can afford a $100/ac lease and the reason this is affordable is not free-market dynamics, but government policy. We must have strategies to diversify acreage. I can only see this happening from a regulatory standpoint. I am very excited about participating in a plan that has real meaning to Michigan's future.

on 12-Apr-2010 18:52:17 by KColasanti from Lansing, MI We are accepting comments on the Draft Michigan Good Food Charter through April 23. Please use line numbers to reference specific lines of text.

on 17-Mar-2010 15:50:50 by Jeremy Moghtader from East Lansing (work) & Ann Arbor (live) Farmer Viability and Development, Agenda Priority Training and Knowledge. In the context of "creating a program to... offer comprehensive beginning farmer" training it seems clear that building off of the Student Organic Farm Organic Farmer Training Program (OFTP) (Formerly Organic Farming Certificate Program OFCP) that is now in its 4th year of training new farmers would be a good starting / collaborating point. As the priority is stated it leaves the reader to think that we have to start from scratch and fails to acknowledge the existing knowledge and resources we have in the state for accomplishing such a task.

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