Policy

Case studies and tips on small farm financing

July 20, 2012
Case studies and tips on small farm financing

Financing smaller farms: New resources for lenders who want to learn and activists who want to promote.

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Food Innovation District: New Economic Gardening Tool

April 6, 2012
Cherry Blossom Time, Benzie County Michigan, photo by John Clement Howe. http://tiny.cc/bgmccw

Toolkit in process: How communities can make space for local food and farm entrepreneurs to co-locate, collaborate, and grow.

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Lenders learn how to bank on small farms, local food

February 3, 2012
Lenders learn how to bank on small farms, local food

 Financing team offers training as part of healthy food initiative  By Patty Cantrell  Nic Welty employs himself full time year-round raising lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens in three low-cost passive solar greenhouses, which together cover less than one acre of land. His Nine Bean Rows farm near Traverse City, MI, is one of many [...]

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Public health concerns spur produce-market growth

November 4, 2011
Public health concerns spur produce-market growth

Sam Shina’s family owns 14 small grocery stores in Detroit. One of them could soon be part of a market incentive experiment designed to improve public health, expand sales for Michigan farmers, and grow local economies.

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Food innovation districts work

November 4, 2011
Food innovation districts work

It’s widely understood in economic development circles that if you want new entrepreneurs to start up and grow, a good strategy is to bring them together and let the creativity roll. A good example is People’s Pierogi Collective, which grew in one year from a startup hot food cart at Detroit’s Eastern Market to contract [...]

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Making way for cottage food entrepreneurs

November 4, 2011
Making way for cottage food entrepreneurs

Nayyirah Shariff is on her way to an entrepreneur’s life of making signature products, employing local people, and investing in her home state of Michigan. The young woman from Flint has her marching orders from customers who have lined up every week to buy her sweet and savory fresh-baked, organic artisan breads. Now she’s putting [...]

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