A product from Garden Fresh Gourmet of Ferndale
Folks often think about the car industry when they think about Michigan's economy and jobs. But Daniel Howes of The Detroit News writes that Michigan's food economy is on a tear:
Growing food locally, processing it and selling it are mushrooming into a $100 billion business for a state second only to California in its diversity of crops and building reputation as a food powerhouse.
From fruits, vegetables and craft beer to salsa, pickles, sausage and artisan bread, Michigan entrepreneurs are leveraging the state's unique geography, central proximity and temperate micro-climates to build an industry that accounts for one of every four jobs in the state.
Consumer demand helps, too. Increasingly, industry players say, consumers want to know where their food comes from, how it is produced, whether the products they're buying are local and what's the story behind them.
This topic is the focus of a discussion this afternoon at the Mackinac Policy Conference, as previewed by Melissa Anders in a similar article in the latest Detroiter magazine, a quarterly publication from the Detroit Regional Chamber.
"There are real opportunities for us to leverage our ability to grow things and create jobs from it,” U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow is quoted as saying. She's among four panelists at today's session on "Building a Sustainable Food Economy."
