Center for Regional Food Systems Michigan Good Food Charter

What are the priorities of the Michigan Good Food Charter? Take a quick look at the 25 agenda priorities below.

Local Agenda Priorities

Community-based

• Expand and increase innovative methods to bring healthy foods to underserved areas as well as strategies to encourage their consumption.
• Improve school food environments and reduce school sales of low-nutrient, high-sugar, high-fat and calorie-dense foods through snack and vending machines or competitive food sales.
• Maximize use of current public benefit programs for vulnerable populations, especially children and seniors, and link them with strategies for healthy food access.
• Provide outreach, training and technical assistance to launch new grocery stores and improve existing stores to better serve underserved people in urban and rural areas.

Land use-based

• Establish food business districts to encourage food businesses to locate in the same area and to support their collaboration.
• Use policy and planning strategies to increase access to healthy food in underserved areas.
• Review and seek appropriate revisions to state and local land use policies to preserve farmland and blend protection with farm viability programs.

Market-based

• Encourage institutions – including schools, hospitals, colleges and universities – to use their collective purchasing power to influence the food supply chain to provide healthier food and more foods grown, raised and processed in Michigan.

Statewide Agenda Priorities

Business or non-profit-based

• Expand opportunities for youth to develop entrepreneurship skills and learn about career opportunities related to good food that support youth and community economic development.
• Establish Michigan as “the place to be” for culturally based good food that is locally grown, processed, prepared and consumed.

Legislation-based

• Incorporate good food education into the pre-K-12 curriculum for all Michigan students.
• Implement a reimbursement program to provide an additional 10 cents per school meal, as a supplement to existing school meal funds, in order to purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables.
• Amend Michigan’s General Property Tax Act to exempt certain on-farm renewable energy installations.
• Set targets for state-funded institutions to procure Michigan-grown, sustainably produced products.

State agency-based

• Direct $10 million to regional food supply chain infrastructure development investments through the Michigan state planning and development regions or other regional designations.
• Implement a food safety audit cost-share or reimbursement program targeted at small and medium-sized farms and work to ensure that audits are conducted in the context of the farm scale.
• Provide financial incentives for farmers and for development of food system infrastructure to support institutional local food purchasing programs.
• Develop a farm-to-institution grant program to provide planning, implementation and kitchen or cafeteria equipment grants to maximize the use of locally grown, raised and processed foods in institutional cafeterias.
• Direct state agencies to maximize capital access through state-sponsored programs that provide farm financing.
• Ensure that all state and higher education business, work force and economic development programs include farming and agriculture in their target audiences for programmatic development, training, investment and technical assistance.
• Contingent upon further market assessment, establish a state meat and poultry inspection program in cooperation with the federal Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) to spur new meat processing infrastructure.
• Include Michigan food and agriculture in state marketing efforts, such as the Pure Michigan campaign, to build awareness of the state’s great variety and quality of local food products and farm amenities.
• Charge business support entities, such as the 18 Michigan Technical Education Centers, with identifying and supporting the equipment and process engineering needs of farmers and other agri-food enterprises, and ensure that food and agriculture are included in state and local economic development plans.

Research-based

• Examine all of Michigan’s food- and agriculture-related laws and regulations (food safety, production, processing, retailing, etc.) for provisions that create unnecessary transactions costs and regulatory burdens on low risk businesses and ensure that regulations are applied in a way that acknowledges the diversity of production practices.
• Develop systems for collecting and sharing production and market data and other data relevant to regional food supply chain development.