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WEST MICHIGAN — For companies that want to export food products, the advice seems simple enough: Go where the stomachs are.

As Michigan State University Professor David Schweikhardt told a couple dozen people looking at the potential of agricultural exports, you have to look for “stomach share.”

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MUSKEGON — Jonathan Seyferth has returned home to Muskegon County to look for dirty work. Lots of it.

Seyferth, 33, joined Muskegon Area First in October as business development manager. His primary charge: increase flow to the county’s wastewater management system, where average daily flow dipped to 28 percent of capacity in 2010.

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WEST MICHIGAN—Changes to the rules governing food safety have put new emphasis on mitigating risk throughout the entire supply chain both beyond and behind the farm gate.

As a result of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law on Jan. 4 this year, food processors and their suppliers have to create Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans for their facilities. These plans help identify and avoid potential food safety risks.

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WEST MICHIGAN —Having built its reputation on high-profile health care and educational projects around the region, CSM Group has begun rapidly devouring projects in West Michigan’s growing food-processing industry.

The Kalamazoo-based construction management firm managed $90 million of projects in the food and beverage industry in 2010 and is on pace to grow the segment 10 percent in 2011, according to Lori Green, CSM’s director of business development. Food and beverage projects have quickly become the firm’s largest growth sector, representing nearly 40 percent of its business last year.

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SPARTA—Open a bottle of juice anywhere in the U.S. and there’s a strong likelihood it has a West Michigan connection.

Old Orchard Brands LLC, which it started as an offshoot of a family farming business in 1985, is the fourth-largest bottled juice brand in the country and the second-largest producer of frozen juice concentrate. Annual sales were $155 million in 2010, according to a company spokesman.

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Agriculture is one of the dominant land-based industries in Michigan, making it the state’s second largest economic driver. West Michigan is at the center of one of the most diverse and abundant food and agriculture clusters in the U.S.

Michigan’s producers are trusted providers of the finest agricultural products and lead the nation in the production of several specialty crops and floriculture products. On a national scale, Michigan leads the nation in the production of 17 commodities and ranks in the top 10 for 46 other commodities.

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BATTLE CREEK — Battle Creek’s push to become a center for food science recently got a boost with a $6.5 million U.S. Food and Drug Administration grant to the International Food Protection Training Institute.

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KALAMAZOO — When businesses choose to hold their meeting or event at Food Dance, an independent restaurant in Kalamazoo infused with a culture of serving fresh, locally grown food — they do so for the “entire experience.”

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WEST MICHIGAN — A recently enacted federal update to the national food safety laws has the potential to impact a wide range of food-related businesses, but the extent of that impact remains to be seen as many of the regulations have yet to be drafted.

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Shrinking distribution channels signaling growth of craft beer in Michigan

WEST MICHIGAN — When a company decides to pull out of a market, is that a good thing? For several Michigan brewers, refocusing their distribution on local markets reflects growth internally.