Community gardens help Michigan adapt to climate change

By Hope O’Dell | Great Lakes Echo

A car filled with produce from the Western U.P. Food Systems Collaborative.

In the western Upper Peninsula, climate change is hurting local food sources.

Warming water temperatures reduce fish spawning and snow compresses on itself less during the winter –– which hurts wild rice, said Rachael Pressley, a regional planner with Western U.P. Planning and Development Region. Habitat warming allows new species of plants and trees to migrate northward, along with invasive pests.

For example, the Drosophila—a type of fruit fly—lays eggs in berries, causing them to ripen and die too quickly to be harvested. They are now able to survive in the U.P. because the climate has warmed.

As the effects of climate change impact day-to-day necessities like food security, community gardens can operate as one avenue of adaptation, said Jennifer Hodbod, an associate professor in Michigan State University’s department of community sustainability.

Pressley is a member of the Western U.P. Food Systems Collaborative, a grassroots movement working to repair the U.P.’s food system damaged by climate change and a lack of grocery stores in rural areas.

The collaborative helps build gardens through community programs and in schools, shelters and low-income housing. It also encourages edible landscaping and foraging.

“A huge part of our work is remembering and challenging this scarcity mindset, and realigning us with the abundance that we see all around,” Pressley said.

Community gardens can help residents not be solely dependent on grocery stores for their food supply, Hodbod said.

Community gardens can also provide relief from heat islands—urban areas that are hotter than outside the city—and can be an opportunity to use wastewater.

Along with the tangible benefits, Hodbod said these gardens can benefit a community socially through knowledge-sharing and creating a sense of unity. This can teach people alternative approaches to food production.

“There’s also an education opportunity there to really demonstrate to local communities what food you can grow and what diverse diet does look like.” she said.

Hodbod said this is especially true in rural areas, where climate change has impacted growing seasons and created environments suitable for invasive species.

Kirk Jones, the managing director of Project Grow, an Ann Arbor-based community garden nonprofit, said the community-building aspect is another important benefit.

“Community-building, I think, is really a valuable part of this. Like I said, you meet people, and it’s very easy to get involved. It’s not bureaucratic,” Jones said.

This community-building can help fend off the mental stress that comes from seeing and experiencing the effects of extreme climate events, according to a report by Margaret Walkover of the University of Hawaii-Manoa and Linda Helland of the California Department of Public Health.

These mental health issues can range from “transient distress to longer-term symptoms,” even going as far as post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Research demonstrates that positive social support is an essential factor in building and maintaining physical and mental resilience for people in all states of health—from robust to highly symptomatic,” the report said.

Community spaces, like community gardens, can help this positive social support. These spaces allow people from differing socioeconomic backgrounds to provide support to one another, according to the report, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Participants in Project Grow’s approximately 20 gardens are not just homogenous, Jones said. They include residents of apartment buildings who wouldn’t otherwise have access to land and homeowners whose lots aren’t suitable for growing.

While community gardens can be both environmentally and socially beneficial, there are limitations due to the efficiency, scale and accessibility of many gardens. Jones said he wasn’t sure if community gardens could be a plausible solution because of their small scale.

“On a national scale, is there really fewer emissions created by somebody growing their own stuff, which might require them driving their car, you know, a couple, three miles, every time they visit the garden, you know, for a very small amount of production,” Jones said.

Hodbod said urban gardens often aren’t the most efficient way to grow produce, and unless tied to an organization that gives the food out to the food insecure, it often doesn’t reach those who need it most.

Pressley said this is because often those who have the time to garden aren’t those who need the food the most.

“Only people that can afford to have the time to garden there are able to do it, and so the people that actually need the garden space are still not getting to it because of the way that community gardens are typically built—typically farther away—and they’re not where people live,” Pressley said. “They’re usually dominated by people who already have their own land or already have the means to buy their own food.”

Hodbod said equitable access can be improved by making tools and seeds free and starting gardens in schools to get people gardening younger.

Pressley said the Western U.P. Food Systems Collaborative works to bridge this gap by making seeds and compost available and through a mutual aid program where those with land plant gardens in their yards for anyone who needs the crops to take.

Residents who grow their own food in community gardens can provide an alternative to buying at the grocery store. In this side step of capitalism, Pressley sees the potential in community gardens to mitigate the effects of climate change on food systems. In growing their own food, residents can become more resilient, she said.

“My vision is the same vision as the people that came before me,” Pressley said. “Which is a more equitable and just food system, where all beings –– not just people –– can thrive, can eat seasonally and can be connected to the land and to each other.”

‘Organic growth’ fuels record-breaking agritourism season, experts say

By Nicholas Simon | Capital News Service

Grandpa Tiny’s Farm in Frankenmouth. Courtesy image.

Michigan farms that offer agricultural tourism opportunities have seen record-breaking attendance over the past two years.

Farm tourism operations were already starting to see growing numbers before the pandemic, with 2019 a banner year for many operations. Then, COVID-19, which spread across the country in 2020, made travelers rethink vacation plans to urban areas.

Hot rural travel destinations like cider mills, corn mazes and U-pick farms were supercharged by the shift, said Wendy Winkel, the president of the Michigan Agritourism Association based in Traverse City.

“2020 was record-breaking, absolutely phenomenal, due to the nature of our businesses,” she said. “Last year was a launchpad — we were excited because it was the re-discovery of farmers markets and local produce. It almost created new habits for buyers. We all gained a lot of new customers.”

Some farmers were apprehensive going into 2021 because they thought things couldn’t get better than last season. But as more farms reported their fall numbers, members of the association were surprised to see even more growth, Winkel said.

“Personally, I’m up 20% from last year,” said Winkel, who owns an historic farm that offers a petting zoo and event venue in Frankenmuth.

The growth over the past two years has been organic, fueled by word of mouth and tradition more than by marketing campaigns, said David Lorenz, the vice president of Travel Michigan.

A young visitor holds a rabbit at Grandpa Tiny’s Farm in Frankenmuth. Courtesy image.

“It’s part of our culture,” Lorenz said. “It’s part of what makes the authentic Michigan travel experience so authentic. It’s real Americana, and it’s something people have been doing well before we had all these devices for entertainment.”

Many farms are looking to expand their tourism offerings. New ventures, like event venues for weddings, are also an increasingly popular option, said Theresa Sisung, an industry relations specialist for the Michigan Farm Bureau.

In an effort to innovate, many operations are looking to traditional side businesses like butcheries and dairies to diversify their income. Farms that invested in such operations have been big winners over the past two years, Sisung said.

“Throughout 2020, and now into 2021, there was a really big rise in the locally grown movement as folks were struggling to find things in the grocery store,” Sisung said. “So there was an uptick in profits, especially among operations that have a market at their farm.”

Experts like Winkel say Michigan farmers can expect increased visitation rates to stick around because of broader changes in consumer habits and because a large percentage of first-time visitors return.

“We’re hopeful that the pandemic, as horrible as it is, was an opportunity for agritourism to re-ignite and catch fire,” she said.

Lorenz said farmers should expect more growth in the coming years as local customers come back and out-of-state visitors start returning in large numbers.

The Pure Michigan campaign has increased efforts in recent years to advertise seasonal rural experiences like fall leaf tours and promote brand awareness of Michigan products in cities across the country, he said.

“We have over 130 varieties of deciduous trees,” Lorenz said. “Unlike out East where they tend to grow together in big stands of ash or maple, in Michigan you’re more likely to see a great variety of fall colors all mixed in that same part of the forest.”

Recently, this type of marketing has been effective in Southern cities that can’t offer seasonal or rural opportunities. That brand awareness is beneficial to Michigan farms because it expands demand for their products to markets across the country, Lorenz said.

Trendy restaurants in the Dallas area have started to sell a variety of Michigan products like beer from the Saugatuck, Holland and Grand Rapids area, as well as a $15 plate of french toast that features Michigan-grown blueberries.

Sisung said she thinks growing interest in agricultural products and experiences indicates a broader cultural shift towards authenticity and tradition, a trend farms are more than willing to embrace going forward.

“You see it everywhere now, you see everyone is talking about pumpkin spice,” Sisung said. “I think it was just more people looking for the happy, they were looking for the positive, they were ready for fall instead of pushing it back.

“The same thing is happening with Christmas—people are pulling forward the happy.”

“That definitely bodes well for us,” Sisung said. “It’s definitely a big positive out of all this.”

Mental health resources grow for Michigan farmer

New postcards aimed at farmers raise mental health awareness. Image: American Farm Bureau Federation

By Barbara Bellinger
Capital News Service

Farmers are known for their ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ mentality.

It is rare they’ll admit they’re getting mental health help.

“Several have mentioned that they’re on antidepressants, I almost fell over in my chair when they told me that,” said Jodi DeHate, a technician for a state farm program serving the Missaukee Conservation District.

DeHate visits dairy farmers in Missaukee and Osceola counties almost daily in her role with the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program.

They talk about crops, prices, the weather…and suicide. Another farmer recently told her that if he didn’t get bankruptcy help, that would be his way out.

Because of outreach efforts by a farmer behavioral health support program, she could offer him a better solution.

“I connected him with a couple of people at the Michigan State University Extension: one for financial and then another for mental health,” said DeHate, a farmer herself. “I don’t know if he appreciated the mental health part, but he appreciated the financial aspect.”

MSU Extension’s Legacy of the Land program, which focuses on farmers’ mental health and financial wellness, completed its first year in September. It is funded by a two-year $500,000 grant from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

“The overarching goal of the grant is to engage with farmers to help provide support for their farm financial needs, as well as their behavioral health needs,” said Eric Karbowski, the Extension’s community behavioral health educator.

He said the teletherapy program that Extension rolled out made a difference in farmers’ lives.

Teletherapy, also known as online therapy, became a necessity during the pandemic. People can now attend therapy by walking into their living room and booting up their computer.

Extension piloted the teletherapy program for five months prior to the start of the grant in September 2020. Since then, teletherapy referrals have increased by 733%, Karbowski said.

“Through a partnership with Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, we’ve been able to provide teletherapy services for farmers that have needed that next level of support,” Karbowski said.

“When somebody calls in, they identify themselves as seeking services under this extension program,” said Dr. Scott Halstead, the vice president of outpatient and recovery services at Pine Rest, a nonprofit organization founded in 1910 on the Cutler Farm in Grand Rapids.

“We match them to some of our therapists who’ve signed up to say, ‘Yes, I’m eager to work with farmers and farm families, and I have some farming experience.’”

When a farmer’s insurance does not cover behavioral health services, the grant covers the cost, said Karbowski.

Access to broadband is a major barrier to accessing telehealth services in rural areas, said Tonia Ritter, the manager of education and leadership programs at the Michigan Farm Bureau in Lansing. And it’s not just in the Upper Peninsula.

New postcards aimed at farmers raise mental health awareness.

“In the village of Byron, people who actually live in town or right on the outskirts cannot access broadband,” she said. Ritter’s husband is a dairy farmer. They are not immune to the stresses that farmers experience, she said. “I see it pretty up close and personal sometimes.”

Said Halstead, “I think it’s clear to us now that your broadband connection should be thought of like you think about electricity. It’s a really essential tool for functioning and society today. And we have to figure out how to get it to people.”

Extension and the Farm Bureau also hold webinars for farmers and send out mental health educational materials and postcards to their members.

The Farm Bureau’s ‘Farmers After Hours’ webinars are posted on Facebook and its YouTube channel. Topics  include preparing taxes, applying for grants and addressing  access to mental health support.

“We want to help with the stigmatization that’s around mental health,” Ritter said. “We actually had a few farmers who had dealt with mental health issues on a webinar panel.”

“It was a fantastic discussion, where our members themselves just said, ‘Hey, it’s okay to seek help. And here’s how I got it.’”

The videos have received more than 7,500 views, Ritter said.

The extension’s ‘Lunch Breaks’ webinar series is held every Wednesday on its Facebook channel.

The goal of the ongoing series is to connect with farmers, to engage and create a sense of community across the state and to make it fun and interesting while doing so.

“We know that the connection piece is linked to so many things in terms of decreasing depression and increasing just overall mental health,” said Karbowski, the host of Lunch Breaks. “When we talk about beef, I call the lunch break ‘Beef Tips and Gravy’.”

Karbowski recently had a farmer reach out to him who had participated in the teletherapy program.

“He had reservations of engaging with therapy, you know, ‘We don’t want neighbors to see our truck sitting in the (therapist) parking lot,’” Karbowski said. “Being able to do teletherapy from the comfort of their home was really advantageous for them.”

“He told us that likely the teletherapy saved his life. He didn’t know if they would have made it without the program.”

Crops grown under solar panels and pollinator habitats could be wave of the future

Solar panels can provide insect habitats. Image: Rob Davis

By Sheldon Krause
Capital News Service 

A new report about combining solar power and farming practices has advocates saying the practice could take hold in Michigan, boosting productivity while providing much needed refuge for bees and other pollinators.

The report from The Counter, a news organization covering in-depth stories on food in America, discusses the rising prevalence of “agrivoltaics,” the practice of growing crops underneath solar panels.

The process appears to be a win-win for crops such as tomatoes and jalapenos that respond well to lower light levels, the report said.

That’s because the crop’s natural photosynthesis can provide a slight cooling effect for the solar panels, allowing them to run 1-3% more efficiently. 

Similarly, the reduced level of direct light on some crops is extremely beneficial, it said. For example, the productivity of tomatoes grown under solar panels doubled while conserving 65% more water.

Also encompassed in the term agrivoltaics is the use of solar arrays to aid in livestock farming, often using solar panels to provide shade for the animals. 

Charles Gould is a bioenergy educator with Michigan State University Extension in West Olive. He says he thinks agrivoltaics could be the future of renewable energy.

“I think that this is the future. Solar requires land, and oftentimes the best for a solar project happens to be land that’s growing crops,” Gould said. 

“If we’re going to take land out of production, we need to maximize its value, and the way we can do that is grow crops or raise livestock underneath those solar arrays,” Gould said.

Gould said that there’s a farm in Michigan that uses solar panels to give sheep shade as they graze. 

Sheep graze under the shade of solar panels in Lenawee County, an example of agrivoltaics. Image: Charles Gould

Sharlissa Moore, a professor at MSU specializing in social and policy issues relating to renewable energy, also sees future potential in making dual use of solar arrays.

“It’s not a question of it happening in the next couple of years, it’s how many years out are we before solar becomes even cheaper and it starts to actually become cost-feasible to do this,” she said.

With agrivoltaics, solar panels often have to be raised off the ground higher than they normally would be.

Moore said the added height of the solar panels sometimes can make the benefits of agrivoltaics economically unrealistic.

“We don’t have great numbers for this, but (raising the solar panels) is going to increase the overall cost by around 9 or 10%, which is a lot in renewable energy where the margins are slim,” she said. 

Moore added that the estimate can change a lot, based on scale.

Gould says that the costs may be worth it in the long run, and may be necessary for garnering public support.

“I think what we’re going to see is that there are people who are opposed to solar projects because they are being put in land that’s currently in crop production,” he said. 

“I think what we’re going to see is the compromise — the compromise here is that people, like zoning boards and the general public, are going to be more amenable to solar projects if that racking system is raised so that farm machinery and animals can graze comfortably underneath them,” he said.

An established pollinator habitat offers space to a butterfly. Image: Rob Davis

Gould said there would be a tradeoff because the general public will want the land to stay in agriculture, meaning increased costs to raise the solar arrays.

Both Gould and Moore said they see additional promise with pollinator habitats — the practice of turning solar arrays into sustainable habitats for pollinating insects.

Gould said pollinators are “really, really critical to agriculture because we’re losing pollinating insects.” 

And Moore said, “Pollinator habitat is much closer to being feasible than agrivoltaics. What I expect to start happening in the near term, particularly because some of it is being mandated by the Michigan government, is to build pollinator habitat on these solar sites.”

Mentors to teach conservation farming to beginners, veterans, socially disadvantaged

Brooks Farms at night. Image: Ron Brooks

By Brianna M. Lane

Wisconsin dairy farmer Ron Brooks practices conservation farming by planting buffer strips and cover crops, practicing no-till planting and precision farming.

Conservation is part of his heritage, said the fifth-generation farmer from Waupaca, who also has restored sites on his farm for an endangered butterfly.

“My grandfather and my great uncles were conservationists and didn’t know it,” said Brooks, who is the chief executive officer at Brooks Farms, which is made up of 12 farms.

Zoey Brooks, the daughter of Ron Brooks, the owner of Brooks Farms. Image: Ron Brooks.

Now Brooks wants to pass that knowledge on to farmers who are beginners, have limited resources, come from socially disadvantaged groups or are veterans.

He will be a mentor for the Land Ethic Mentorship program run by the Wisconsin-based agriculture nonprofit organization, Sand County Foundation. The program will help poor, beginner or socially disadvantaged farmers across the nation practice conservation.

Farmers can apply on the Sand County Foundation’s website.

The idea for the program came from the past winners of the Leopold Conservation Award, said Sand County Foundation Vice President Heidi Peterson. They often expressed the need to share information about land ethics with the next generation of farmers.

The goal is to have 200 mentees, which is why there is no application closing date, she said.  The pilot program will run for two years. It is funded by a $250,000 grant from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Services.

“Agricultural demographics are changing. Research shows there has been an increase of farmers younger than 35 and farmers of color,” Peterson said.

Many new farmers also don’t come from a farming background, she said.

Underserved farmers are more likely to operate on sensitive land, Peterson said. Beginner farmers are more likely to have farms closer to impaired bodies of water.

The Sand County Foundation’s Leopold Conservation Award recognizes farmers committed to land ethics, she said. The award has acknowledged 150 farmers since 2003.

“The Leopold Award has been compared to the Noble Peace Prize for conservation,” said Brooks who received the honor in 2016.

A man tills the soil at Garcia’s Gardens. Image: Dan Garcia

Farmers will be connected to mentors through an interview to ensure their backgrounds and operations align, Peterson said. Individual and group mentoring will be available through an app. The program will also have field days and webinars.

Mentors and mentees will also attend a conservation symposium about resiliency in August, she said.

Brooks is excited to teach farmers about the importance of patience and to share his experiences, so they don’t make the same mistakes.

“I want to take the burden off of their shoulders and make it okay to be a conservationist,” Brooks said.

Though Brooks’ family practiced conservation farming, he wishes a program was around when he began farming.

The inside of the hoop house during the fall. Image: Dan Garcia

“When you’re beginning farming, conservation is the last thing on your mind,” he said.

You’re worried about making ends meet, fitting in or other things, he said.

Dan Garcia, the owner of the small Indianapolis vegetable farm, Garcia’s Gardens, and a Hoosier Young Farmers Coalition member agrees.

“Conservation is one of the last things you’re thinking about,” he said. “I was just trying to survive.”

It’s a practice farmers can implement once they’re stabilized, he said.

“The first two years I was like a fetus, I was feeling around and didn’t know what was out there,” he said.

Now Garcia’s Gardens is in its seventh season.

Tomatoes ripening at Garcia’s Gardens. Image: Dan Garcia

Garcia knew about conservation from Boy Scouts and college, but not conservation farming. His farming background came from his dad and working for a farm.

He is open to learning more about conservation farming but faces obstacles like finances and land.

For Brooks, conservation farming has been made easier by automated technology.

He uses precision farming, a practice where self-driving tractors use a combination of math, physics and a GPS to plant crops and adjust fertilizer to the needs of the land. It also allows planting between previous years’ rows.

“Precision farming has made conservation farming a slam dunk,” he said.

But sometimes conservation farming requires quick action.

Last year his cheese processor had to process 20% less milk than usual due to COVID-19, he said. They recommended that he dump the excess milk.

Brooks resisted that idea and instead, donated the excess milk to a local artisan cheesemaker.

Butler University students after pulling up carrots at Garcia’s Gardens. Image: Instagram @garciasgardens

“I didn’t want to dump the milk in the manure pit or on the land.”

Conservation farming looks different at Garcia’s Gardens.

The acre and a half farm use a hoop house funded by the National Resources Conservation Service’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, EQIP, grant, Garcia said.

Other conservation practices are permaculture beds for bees, tending to retention ponds and wildlife habitats, he said.

Some tilling is also used on the farm, but not more than an inch deep. He hasn’t dug far enough to hit clay, he said.

For Garcia, the impact he’ll leave with his conservation efforts matter the most within his neighborhood. The farm is dedicated to food justice and wants to provide fresh produce to people with low income while growing it ethically.

“If I can help out all of our folks within a five-mile radius, then that’s great, he said. “I think I can have a better impact here, than trying to have an impact on people in like Detroit.”