Crystal Ball AgriBiz Michigan Farm Bureau’s Wood: Ag ready to engage partners in Lansing
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By Wayne H. Wood, President
Michigan Farm Bureau
Michigan farmers are chomping at the bit to get to business in 2011 and work with a new administration and legislature on rebuilding Michigan’s economy.
We are coming off a landmark year in which the agriculture community came together and rallied around a shared purpose of bringing about common-sense solutions to fix Michigan. Key to this was endorsing and electing candidates deemed Friends of Agriculture by Michigan Farm Bureau’s political action committee, AgriPac.
AgriPac enjoyed an 85 percent success rate in the general election. As a result, we are proud to welcome newly elected legislators who place a high value on the many ways in which agriculture benefits Michigan and who have pledged to help our state’s farmers continue to provide safe food, protect the environment, care for their animals and contribute to Michigan’s future.
Farm Bureau is especially optimistic about the vision and leadership of Governor-elect Rick Snyder and his newly assembled administrative team. We expect that Snyder and his team will foster a business climate conducive to growing Michigan’s $71.3 billion agriculture industry—a climate of low taxes, regulatory certainty and policies that enhance access to local, domestic and international markets. We also have confidence that Snyder will demand the same outcome-based results of his state directors as he promised during his campaign for governor and produce state departments that are more effective, economical and deliver better customer service.
While it appears that agriculture’s political landscape is moving in the right direction, I’m reminded of a cautionary tale from Will Rogers, who once said, “even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
So despite a highly successful and encouraging election year, there is plenty of work cut out for Michigan agriculture. Our task now shifts to continuing to engage newly elected legislators and holding them accountable for making the right policy decisions regardless of which individual or political party gets the credit.
For example, the agriculture community was successful this past year in helping the Department of Agriculture maintain vital programs and services and fend off drastic budget reductions and increased fees that had been proposed. But it would be naïve to think that agriculture funding will not be scrutinized again. We must also ensure that the agriculture department remains relevant to the current needs and issues facing Michigan’s evolving agriculture industry.
Also on the subject of general fund spending, we must persuade legislators to take a hard look at corrections, human services and higher education as these three areas currently account for 86 percent of the state’s general funding spending. Surely, reforms can be made to these most costly expenditures.
Legislative discussions about taxes and fees are also inevitable, particularly business and property taxes. Agriculture remains a capital-intensive industry in which most farmers are price-takers not price-makers, so Farm Bureau will do everything it can to have a seat at the table in these pivotal discussions.
At the same time, it will be up to farmers to continue to plant the seeds for how Michigan can capitalize on its agricultural diversity and the positive growth the industry has experienced over the last several years.
One practical solution is to build on Michigan’s successful food processing sector so that more of the agricultural commodities grown and raised by Michigan farmers are also processed here, rather than sent out of state only to be shipped back for local consumption. With the right business climate, it is feasible that Michigan could boost its current food processing sector from a $25 billion to $34 billion industry by 2015 and create 4,500 new jobs.
Along these same lines, Michigan could generate net sales of $126 million if an additional 500,000 acres of Michigan forestland were made available for sustainable timber harvest.
Opportunity also abounds with Snyder’s support of the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP), which is a voluntary, proactive program that helps farmers indentify and minimize or eliminate pollution risks on farms of all types and sizes while complying with state and federal environmental regulations. The Governor-elect is open to incentives which would dramatically increase the number of Michigan farms verified in MAEAP, and farmers are eager to demonstrate that innovative approaches like MAEAP can be sound alternatives to mandates that often hinder rather than help Michigan.
The bottom line is that agriculture plowed political ground with a common purpose focused on common sense solutions, and now it’s time for everyone to work together to yield uncommon results.