Education & Networking Resources

Baker College/Agriculture Technologies

9600 E 13th St. Cadillac, MI 49601 | (231) 876-3119

Baker’s Agriculture Technology program provides you with advanced training to compete in today’s technology-driven farming industry.

Through classwork, hands-on lab training, and the real-world experience of an internship, you study the latest in agricultural equipment, tools, and technologies along with agribusiness, plant science, viticulture, sustainable agriculture, and more. You can choose to increase your knowledge in agribusiness, animal science, or in farming technology.

When you complete the program, you’ll be prepared to apply your knowledge, and skills to select, install, and maintain modern agricultural technologies.

The Agriculture Technology program is available at the following campuses: Cadillac and Owosso.

Biosystems

7876 S. Van Dyke Rd. Marlette, MI 48453 | 989-635-2864

Servicing agriculture in the Great Lakes Region with soil testing, consulting, educational programs,  biological technologies, transitioning to “organic”, mulching and community ecology.

Chef’s Collaborative

PO Box 425088 Cambridge, MA 2142 | (617) 236-5200

Change Menus. Change Lives.

Chefs and food professionals are powerful change agents. The choices you make have the power to transform much more than just food.

Join Chefs Collaborative, expand your network, and connect with hundreds of like-minded chefs and food professionals across the country who care about sourcing, cooking, and serving better food and are doing their part to create a better food system.

MISSION: Chefs Collaborative is a national nonprofit network with a mission to inspire, educate, and celebrate chefs and food professionals building a better food system.

VISION: Sustainable practices will be second nature for every chef in the United States.

Familyfarmed

225 W. Hubbard, Suite 650 Chicago, IL 60654 | 312-874-7360

FamilyFarmed is a non-profit organization committed to expanding the production, marketing and distribution of locally grown and responsibly produced food, in order to enhance the social, economic, and environmental health of our communities.

WE SEEK TO:…
…build public and private partnerships that support the growth of regional food systems that benefit farmers, consumers, and businesses.
…increase local and organic food sales in the region to create new jobs, sustainable economic development, and rural revitalization.
…preserve our farmland through the development of high value markets that give regional producers a fair price for their crops and encourage them to stay on their land.
…advocate for access to healthy and affordable food for all people and communities.
…encourage transparency in the food production and distribution process.
…respect and understand differences between urban and rural cultures and begin to bridge this divide through dialogue and economic opportunity.
…build solid relationships between stakeholders including staff, consultants, board members, businesses, NGO’s, policymakers, media, and consumers.
…foster a work environment that values and recognizes individual contribution to the organization.
…model a work style of collaboration and collegiality.
…practice high standards of accountability, responsiveness, and transparency in all relationships with funders, clients, partners, associates, employees.

Food & Farming Network

148 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI 49686

Northwest Michigan Food and Farming Network (FFN) members represent all aspects of the local food system. Members have been working since 2009 to build northwest Michigan’s agricultural future. The 10-county region includes: Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee, Missaukee, and Wexford counties.

The FFN is volunteer-based. The organizational structure includes co-leaders, champions, task force team leaders, and task force team members. Many others participate in the network,as needed.

In 2016, task force leaders and teams are focusing on direct and indirect local food sales by farmers, farm to institution sales, agri-business generation, access to healthy food for all, and farmland resources—including preservation. Currently FFN has champions in three areas: education, public health, and policy.

Grand Traverse Conservation District

1450 Cass Rd Traverse City, MI 49685 | 231-941-0960

For over 70 years, we have worked hand-in-hand with hundreds of local farmers to safeguard our natural resources while providing for healthy, safe, high quality agricultural products. Our work has helped keep our groundwater clean, our soils productive, and our farm community vibrant.

Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo

c/o Michigan Vegetable Council PO Box 277 Erie, MI 48133 | 734-848-8899

The Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market EXPO is the largest show of its kind in the country. It is held each year in early December at DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Great Lakes EXPO, as it’s commonly known, was first held in December 2001 when the Michigan State Horticultural Society and the Michigan Vegetable Council combined their respective education and trade shows.

The EXPO offers an extensive education program on a range of topics pertinent to fruit and vegetable growers and farm marketers. There are also greenhouse sessions, since the Michigan Greenhouse Growers EXPO is held concurrently with the Great Lakes EXPO. The trade show is huge, with 450 exhibitors featuring a wide array of products and services of interest to specialty crop growers and farm marketers.

For registration information, contact Maureen Kelley, Registration Manager, at [email protected] or 734-239-8027.
For information on exhibiting in the trade show, contact Sharri German, Trade Show Manager, at [email protected] or 616-794-0492.
For general program information, contact Jennifer Dickie or Maureen Kelley or 734-239-8027.

Groundwork Center Farm to School/10 Cents a Meal

148. E. Front St. #301 Traverse City, Mi 48684

For more than a decade, Groundwork has been connecting schools and students to local farms and food. Our program was launched with just a few activities in one classroom in 2004, and gradually grew to feature biweekly farm to school activities in more than 70 individual classrooms across 14 schools, reaching nearly 2,000 students. Today, through our partnership with the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District, Groundwork’s farm to school program reaches 24,000 students across Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Antrim and Kalkaska counties.

In 2011, Groundwork became a founding service site for FoodCorps, a national service organization aiming to connect kids to real food and help them grow up healthy by providing nutrition, garden and culinary education to students in high-need schools. In the 2013-14 school year, our FoodCorps service members helped bring more than 1,500 pounds of local produce into cafeterias and classrooms in the Grand Traverse region. Three schools started school gardens, and eight more continued operating existing gardens.

Groundwork is also advancing a statewide policy initiative to reimburse school food service for purchasing local produce. Following a successful pilot program in northwest lower Michigan, 10 Cents a Meal has resulted in increased state funds for local food purchases at schools in two of the Governor’s prosperity regions throughout the state.

Holistic Management International

HMI 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Alburquerque, NM 87109 | 505-842-5252

Since 1984, HMI has helped communities grow and thrive by educating family farmers and ranchers and pastoralists in regenerative agricultural practices that empower them to strengthen their businesses, produce healthier food, improve local wildlife habitats and protect the environment.

We offer several major programs:
Beginning Farmers & Ranchers – We educate and empower beginning farmers and ranchers so they are positioned to apply Holistic Management principles and practices to build successful businesses.
Professional Development – Take your skills to the next level. We provide professional development and training in Holistic Management practices to ranchers, farmers and land stewards, helping them add more tools to their land resource management tool box.
The Open Gate On-Farm Learning Series – Consists of training days that are held on farms and ranches throughout the U.S. Each training day is hosted by an experienced Holistic Management practitioner and features numerous innovative and sustainable agricultural topics and practice.

***Northwest Michigan educator, Larry Dyer, 231-881-2784***

MI Fresh Start Food Truck

2279 W. South Airport Rd Traverse City, MI 48684 | 231-922-4805

We’re changing lives through GOOD food. Mi Fresh Start is a job training enterprise of Goodwill Northern Michigan serving local, scratch-cooked fare.

The Grand Traverse area has an incredible array of wonderful restaurants and food services, making the industry one of the top employers in the area. Mi Fresh Start will work to ensure that local, unemployed individuals will have the tools that they need to access these employment opportunities. In teaching to industry standards, Goodwill hopes to truly provide a Fresh Start for families hardest hit by the economic downturn.

The Mi Fresh Start Food Truck provides workforce training, supports local agriculture, and provides affordable fresh food options for the food insecure in the Grand Traverse community.

Michigan Beefalo Breeders Association

9824 E YZ ave. Vicksburg, Michigan 49097 | 269-496-7814

The Michigan Beefalo Breeders Association was formed in 1981. Membership is open to all persons interested in the promotion, development and improvement of the Beefalo breed within the state of Michigan. Membership is composed of breeders and owners of Beefalo across Michigan who are very willing to share their experiences, ideas, and suggestions.

Michigan Organic Food & Farm Alliance (MOFFA)

PO Box 26102 Lansing, MI 48909-6102 | 248-262-6826

Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance (MOFFA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting environmentally sound and socially just organic food and farming systems. Since 1992, MOFFA has been promoting public awareness for the need of decentralized, secure, unadulterated, and humane methods and programs to nutritionally feed all of us. MOFFA was one of the first organizations in Michigan and the nation to actively promote these principles.

MOFFA welcomes new members to join us and get involved in creating a better food system for Michigan. Our members include organic and ecologically sustainable farmers, food coops, educators, environmentalists, food businesses, food and farm activists and concerned citizens throughout Michigan and elsewhere.

Our mission: Promoting organic agriculture and the development and support of food systems that revitalize and sustain local communities.

Our vision: At a time when increased industrialization of our food system has concentrated control of this system into fewer hands, degraded the environment and profaned the human spirit, organic agriculture restores wellness in people, community and the earth. MOFFA teaches and advocates that local organic food systems create the necessary connections between healthy people, communities and the earth.

MSU Diagnostic Services

578 Wilson Rd., Room. 107 East Lansing, MI 48824-6469 | (517) 355-4536

We assist a wide variety of people experiencing problems with plants and pests. There are many things that cause plant problems. Our laboratory specializes in diagnosing problems caused by arthropods (insects, mites, ticks, etc.), pathogens (fungi, bacteria, viruses), and nematodes.

Here are some of the samples we accept for diagnosis:
Plants or plant parts for insect, pathogen and nematode analysis
Insects, mites, ticks, spiders and other arthropods for identification
Soil and tissue samples for nematode analysis
Weeds and plants for identification
Weeds for herbicide resistance screening

Samples may be submitted to the lab by mail or dropped off at our facility.  We will analyze the sample for a nominal fee and provide a diagnosis or identification of the problem as well as recommendations for control.

[email protected]

MSU Extension, Leelanau County

8527 E. Government Center Dr. #107 Suttons Bay, MI 49682 | 231-256-9888

Michigan State University Extension helps people improve their lives by bringing the vast knowledge resources of MSU directly to individuals, communities and businesses.
Email:
[email protected]:
231-256-9888
Home gardening questions? Call 1-888-678-3464

Hours:
Monday – Friday
8am – 4pm

MSU Integrated Pest Management

MSU Extension  Suite 400 401 N. Lake St. Cadillac, MI 49601 | 231-944-6504

The MSU IPM Program promotes the use of integrated pest management (IPM) and related plant health practices to safeguard farm and environmental health through research-based education, outreach and demonstration and applied research.

We aid the integration of IPM and integrated crop management activities across specializations, working with University, agency and private-sector colleagues. We collaborate with specialists in many units including the Departments of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences; Entomology, Horticulture, and Forestry, and field staff of MSU Extension, and AgBioResearch. We work with these colleagues in research and demonstration projects throughout Michigan and beyond.

One of our key collaborative projects, with the Michigan Climatology Resources Program, is Enviro-weather, a website with weather-based pest, natural resources and production management tools.

National Farmer’s Union

20 F. Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20001 | (202) 554-1600

We are a grassroots, producer-driven organization that believes strong family agriculture is the basis for thriving rural communities.

The key to our success and credibility has been Farmers Union’s grassroots structure in which policy positions are initiated locally.

Whether the issue is food safety, dairy, specialty crops, trade or any other item facing America’s family farmers – NFU listens to its members.

NFU is a powerful and respected voice on critical issues on the national and state levels. Our state and national leaders and staff understand the critical issues facing rural America and family agriculture. We represent YOUR voice to elected officials.

Northern Michigan Permaculture

Traverse City, MI

Northern Michigan Permaculture envisions abundant, regional growth through permaculture design, education, and homesteads, businesses, bioregional networking, experiential learning centers for children, youth and adults. We are thrilled to be part of one of the many communities in the North West Michigan region, along with many passionate, curious and creative folks, who are actively participating in the continued emergence of a permaculture network in our Great Lake State!

Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Station

6686 S. Center Highway Traverse City, MI 49684 | 231-946-1510

This 100-acre center sits in the five-county northwestern region that produces almost half of the U.S. supply of tart cherries and is responsible for 83 percent of sweet cherry production in Michigan. Founded through the efforts of the northwestern Michigan area fruit industry, the center is the premier research site for integrated pest management, horticultural production and handling, value-added processing, marketing and farm financial management practices for sweet and tart cherries, wine grapes, apples, plums and hops. In addition to creating and expanding knowledge through leading-edge research on cherries and other fruits, the center disseminates state-of-the-art information to the Michigan fruit industry and the public.

The Fruit Nut

Clarkston, MI

The Fruit Nut is a project started by Trevor Newman dedicated to exploring and popularizing uncommon and underutilized fruiting plants. A key mission of The Fruit Nut is to make fruit growing exciting and accessible to home and land owners while promoting ecologically sound and economically viable practices. Explore the blog and resources pages and send a message for inquires about custom grafting and educational services.

Tillers International

101515 East OP Avenue Scotts, MI 49088 | 269-626-0223

Tillers International is a multi-faceted 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people in rural areas around the world. In addition to teaching traditional skills at our Cooks Mill Learning Center (CMLC) in Scotts, Michigan, we work with farmers and artisans to create the best and most innovative solutions to their problems. Our specialty is animal traction/draft animal power – the use of animals to carry out tasks – but we also offer numerous blacksmithing/metalworking, woodworking, farming, food, and fiber classes.

The classes taught at our Cooks Mill Learning Center directly support our overseas work with farmers throughout Africa both technically and financially. When you take a class at Tillers, you’re supporting innovations for millions of farmers.