KBS BLOG: Connecting with Agriculture
August 11, 2011
If you have a garden, you know it’s August because it’s tomato season. For those of us who don’t have gardens, you’re hearing pleas from neighbors and coworkers- “please, take some tomatoes! They’re taking over my house!” The local community supported agriculture group I support has hit its stride – I bring an over-flowing bag of picked-that-morning vegetables home to my kitchen each Monday and frantically, but gratefully, figure out how to incorporate them into the week’s meals.
This late summer abundance always makes me contemplate the richness of our local agriculture, but thinking about farming should not come naturally to me. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, miles from any farms, and while the community I lived in had a classic, centralized downtown, an award-winning library, and I could walk to the Metra station to take the train into “the city,” I didn’t know any farmers. I had no idea what de-tassling was, even though I grew up in a big corn state. I only saw farms on the occasional Sunday drive in my dad’s Austin Healey or when driving into central Illinois to drop off my older sister at college.
As a child, my exposure to agriculture and local agribusiness happened during family vacations to Pentwater, Michigan. When we tired of playing at the beach, Mom would pack us up in the mini-van and drive us on the orchard-lined country roads of Oceana County, stopping at roadside veggie and fruit stands, visiting local dairies and on-farm bakeries. We would bring home a bunch of fresh sweet corn and asparagus for that night’s dinner. And while I’ve always hated asparagus, I only recently realized how much these experiences “in the country” influenced my decision to leave Chicago behind and go to school in Michigan. And stay here.
Who knew that agriculture would find its way into my career? At KBS, we’ve been busy lately on the agriculture front. I recently helped our client, Heart of the Lakes Center for Land Conservation Policy, get legislation passed that encourages farmers to pay back P.A. 116 developments rights agreement liens, putting money into the state’s agricultural preservation fund. Rachel Kuntzsch and I have also been working with Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute, Tri-County Regional Planning, and Eaton, Ingham, and Clinton Counties to develop an agriculture economic development plan for the Lansing region.
Rachel recently, half-joking, named me the office agriculture expert. And while that’s far from the truth (I live two miles from downtown Lansing and can only manage to grow a few feet of landscaping plants), I can honestly say that I care about Michigan’s agriculture. A lot. And I’m thrilled to be working with farmers, farmland experts, and policymakers who all want to make our state a better place to grow.
I’m excited about the coming months. Like the farmer anticipating the fall harvest, the fall, to me, is a time when colleagues and partners are coming back from summer vacations, kids are going back to school, and we’re all starting new projects. It’s a time for action and productivity. I can’t help but feel this way as I pass cornfields on the way from home to our offices in Grand Ledge each morning, watching those stalks gradually reach their peak.