‘Our Highest Priority’: State Agriculture Director Talks Disaster Relief For Northern Michigan Cherry Growers

Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a disaster declaration for northern Michigan’s sweet cherry industry. The declaration, which applies to three primary counties (Antrim, Grand Traverse, and Leelanau) and eight contiguous counties (Benzie, Crawford, Manistee, Otsego, Charlevoix, Kalkaska, Missaukee, and Wexford) will make loan assistance and other resources available to local cherry growers, many of whom lost huge parts of their crops this year to unpredictable weather patterns, mold and disease pressure, pest activity, and more.

In light of the news, the Leelanau Ticker sits down with Tim Boring, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), to find out what the disaster declaration means for local farmers and to discuss the existential threats facing northern Michigan’s cherry industry.

Ticker: How big of a deal is this disaster declaration, given the terrible cherry season we had this year?

Boring: Well, by no means is it going to make producers whole. The most direct action with this disaster declaration is going to be the availability of low-interest loans from USDA Farm Service Agency. But I would characterize the declaration as one step in what we anticipate to be a series of supportive steps, both in the short and long term, for specialty crop producers in Michigan. These disaster declarations open the door for larger disaster assistance programs that might come down the road in the future. Across the country right now, we're seeing a lot of these disaster relief programs due to the effects of extreme weather. Making sure cherry producers in northwest Michigan have access to those programs, if they do come down the pike, is certainly something we want to do.

More broadly, beyond just this disaster declaration, working on the climate resiliency of our specialty crop systems is a high priority for us here at MDARD. We're partnering with Michigan State University and we're in the second year of a climate resiliency grant program that looks to connect researchers with significant funds to work on more long-ranging climate resiliency type projects. That’s important work, because we know we're going to continue to have these extreme weather events, and that the effects of climate change are going to make the viability of the industry more challenging.

Ticker: How common are these types of disaster declarations?

Boring: Drought is the most frequent disaster category, and we’ll see that declared on a somewhat regular basis. And unfortunately, in the last few years, it seems like we've seen increased frequency of drought in a lot of different areas. But a lot of times, with specialty crop industries, it’s not just drought [that leads to disaster declarations]. It could be effects of early frosts, or early extreme weather events. This specific disaster declaration in northwest Michigan tied in three different weather events: early-season excessive rainfall, mild conditions over the winter, and then some into-the-season challenges and difficulties as well.

Broadly, over the last decade or so, we continue to see more of these extreme weather events that translate into significant production losses. And a big challenge is that, in permanent crops like we have across Michigan, those situations – especially when we get two or three events over a span of a few years – they can really threaten the viability of making sure producers are staying in into these systems long term.

Ticker: The situation is definitely becoming existential for some cherry farmers up here. There’s been a lot of worry about growers retiring, selling their farms, and getting out of ag entirely. Have you heard much of those fears lately in your conversations with producers?

Boring: Certainly, yes. And that's not limited to cherries; it’s any crop right now.

For example, farms that are significantly reliant on the H-2A program [a foreign labor visa program] are seeing significant challenges around the rapid increase in wage rates over the last couple years. Those numbers are dictated at federal level, but we've seen some pretty significant labor costs that really pose challenging economic situation for farms.

Another example: Look at the effects of imports coming into our markets. With cherries, we have Turkish imports coming in that are running at far below production costs for what Michigan growers can handle.

If you take the wage rate issues, and you take the imports coming into the country, and then you compound those issues with severe weather challenges like we saw this year, that’s a perfect storm. When the sweet cherry crops sees upwards of 75 percent production losses, it does have a lot of growers evaluating the long term viability of these industries. And that's particularly true with permanent crops like cherries. A corn and soybean farmer might be able to rotate in different crops based on the annual production forecast or market outlooks. It's a lot more challenging when we talk about permanent crops like apples or cherries or asparagus.

Ticker: Obviously, this year was exceptionally bad for sweet cherries, but it’s not the first bad cherry growing season in recent memory. Climate change, milder winters, and unpredictable weather in the spring and summer are making it harder to grow this fruit in northern Michigan. A federal disaster declaration is a band-aid for this year, but is there a bigger-picture solution to the challenges cherry growers are facing?

Boring: I'm not sure it's just a one solution issue. We're taking a few different tracks to address the longer-term issues. Here at MDARD, the resiliency and diversity of our cropping systems is among our highest priorities. We're working on standing up a regenerative ag program that's targeted in a lot of ways towards improving the resiliency of cropping systems in the state, and a big focus is improving our weather resiliency and our ability to adapt to extreme weather events on an annual basis. Our last budget cycle also included a new Farm to Family program that we're looking to focus on how we're getting food into more consumer markets and really reinforcing the value of Michigan agriculture.

So, we're looking at a multi-faceted approach to this. We want to deal with the production resiliency and the supply chain challenges in the immediate term. But we’re also working on improving demand and better valorizing just what Michigan production means for the state, with an eye on the fact that if we don't have these cropping systems in the same way moving forward, we've lost something of our cultural and social identity.

Ticker: Cherries are definitely a huge part of northern Michigan’s culture, identity, and economy…

Boring: And that’s mirrored in other places of the state too, right? Certainly, there's the economic impact of cherry production on a farm level. But we tend to have really vertically-integrated cropping systems here in Michigan, which means it's not just about the farms. There are processor impacts, and auxiliary and ancillary economic benefits to communities – to say nothing of the fact that we've got tourism that's built upon these cropping systems in a lot of places. I think we miss something when we only talk about the producer-level impacts of agriculture, or about the cold dollars and cents. Entire regions are defined in so many different ways by our agricultural systems.

Ticker: There’s a grassroots organization of cherry growers in northern Michigan that is trying to figure out pathways forward, especially after this challenging season. How likely it is that they can bend the ear of statewide or national leaders to get some help in that fight?

Boring: Oh, they've already got our ears. We're in constant contact with producers across the state, specifically in northwest Michigan, around these issues. And statewide leaders in the legislature are really paying attention to these challenges, too. This disaster declaration we’re talking about was prompted, in a lot of ways, by State Representative Betsy Coffia standing up and articulating the concerns of growers. So, leaders in Lansing are absolutely paying attention to these issues and are talking about just how significant these production systems are to the future of Michigan.

Ticker: What’s the next step for growers? What do they need to know going forward?

Boring: With the announcement of this disaster declaration, producers should contact their USDA Farm Service Agency office to make sure they're well positioned for all the benefits and programs that are going to be triggered from this. We're also actually planning to be in the Traverse City area this Wednesday with Rep. Coffia, talking more with producers about what we can be doing in Lansing – and to amplify our voice into Washington, D.C. – to help the cherry industry. And then we’re going to continue at MDARD to prioritize resiliency and diversity, because we know that maintaining the viability of cropping systems like cherries into the future is our highest priority.