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Michigan Farm Bureau delegates get to work
Michigan Farm Bureau policy is being crafted for the year ahead in Grand Rapids.
Michigan Farm Bureau Policy Development Chair Andy Hagenow tells Brownfield delegates started diving into policy over the past month through district meetings and will be able to participate through in-person and virtual voting this week.
“It will go the way the delegates want it to go—that’s the best part about this process,” he says. “The folks downtown in Lansing know that when we come to talk to them about issues that we’re speaking for an entire organization of farmers.”
Climate policy is undergoing an overhaul to better align with fast-developing opportunities and represent the needs of farmers. Hagenow says delegates have also prioritized energy policy to discuss land use as utilities continue to expand renewable efforts.
“We wanted to highlight it because there is still a lot of ongoing discussion about solar and wind farms, and contracts related to that,” he explains.
Other state policy priorities include encouraging Michigan State University research farms to be fiscally responsible based as farm businesses and expanding meat processing in the state.
Hagenow is retiring from his positions this year after serving since 2000.
