While the state can’t change the economics of adding more food processing capacity to the state, it is launching an effort to provide assistance in areas that include workforce development, packaging technology, dealing with wastewater runoff and supply chain management.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development are creating a $3 million fund that encourages proposals for solutions. The money comes from funds in the two entities’ budgets that Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law last month.
“We’re going to be doing a lot of work to see where the best opportunities are,” said MEDC President and CEO Michael Finney.
Gordon Wenk, chief deputy director for the agriculture department, said he does not expect the money from the fund to help specific companies but instead to find ways to assist the industry as a whole that a variety of companies could use. Processing facilities, for example, often share the problem of disposing of wastewater during the winter, said Bob Boehm, manager of the commodity and marketing department at the Michigan Farm Bureau.
Boehm said such facilities are often water-intensive, due to the cleaning of fruit and vegetables and washing of plants. In the summer, the water that was used can be irrigated onto another crop. But when the ground is frozen, it can damage the soil. Boehm said that in some cases there aren’t really any other options, and facilities have to dispose of the water the best they can because they operate all year round.
The hope is that with the new fund, a university or a group or business with an idea, might propose a solution to the problem that everyone would have access to use, he said.
The agriculture department issued a request for proposal last week that it hopes will generate interest from the state’s community colleges and universities, or companies in the industry.
While the RFP is open-ended, there are five categories the department has identified through talks with the industry that need assistance: workforce development, technical assistance, commercialization, value-added processing and export opportunity.
Wenk said industry representatives came to the department saying there was a difficulty in finding qualified workers.
The hope is that one or more of the state’s educational institutions will take part in creating classes to train workers. oug Buhler, director of AgBioResearch and senior associate dean for research for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University, said he expects to apply for some of the funding as the university has already been involved in workforce development issues.
“There is a sense there are not enough people trained in the food processing industry,” Buhler said.
Because the need is there and companies largely don’t have time to wait for someone to complete a four-year degree, Buhler expects to see the university work with community colleges to help provide more technical training.
He said factories in the food industry now are filled with sophisticated machinery and computers and more training is required. He said a few larger agricultural states like California and Florida have such programs but mostly focus on large companies. Michigan’s program is likely to help small and midsize companies that can’t afford to do such training on their own.
“It’s something that’s been an identified need for a number of years,” he said.
Another area with potential for some of the funding is in conducting applied research into packaging technologies that would help food stay fresh longer so Michigan-made products could be sold more easily around the world, Wenk said.
“There have been quite a number of success stories in the food and agriculture sector, and I hope there are many more to come,” he said.
Mike DiBernardo, the economic development specialist for the department, said the process in developing the fund came together with cooperation from the industry.
“It’s a very collaborative effort,” he said.
DiBernardo said those submitting RFPs will be asked how success will be measured, so it can be tracked during the duration.
He said he hopes to be able to show results from intermittent goals so that by the time budget talks roll around again next spring, the department can validate these and seek continued funding for the program in the next fiscal year.
