By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
LANSING, Mich. — Last year, a Michigan House Republican task force on agriculture held a series of hearings across the state and produced a 23-page report on its findings and recommendations.
Regarding government regulation of ag, less is definitely more.

The report, made available earlier this summer, was produced by task force members Cindy Denby (Handy Township), Brian Calley (Portland), Kevin Daley (Lum), Goeff Hansen (Hart) and Kenneth Kurtz (Coldwater). They held public meetings last year in Coldwater, Howell, Fremont, Ionia and Attica.

“Agriculture is one of the leading industries in Michigan,” Denby said. “We had a lot of good interviews with different types of farms and many different types of tours.”

The task force is hopeful the policy recommendations can be turned into legislation. “Some of the bills have already been introduced that are based on the recommendations,” Denby said. “We’ll keep working on it.”

The report is broken up into sections about how state regulations operate, as well as how different segments of the agriculture sector are doing and how to improve them. One of the biggest complaints the report focuses on is too much regulation from the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (DNRE), formerly the DNR and Department of Environmental Quality.

“The (DNRE) has a history of prolonging permit application processes,” the report states. “Often rules and guidelines change several times during the process, thereby creating uncertainty.

“During one of the hearings, Ed Kretchman, of the Berrien County Farm Bureau, addressed the task force regarding the DNRE’s arbitrary regulation of agriculture. It is vital that we minimize the amount of state government intrusion into everyday agricultural operations.”

The report goes on to state that farmers who testified at the hearings complained of expensive and time-consuming reporting requirements, saying they were sometimes duplicative as well as inconsistent, and slow response times from the department.

Farmers also complained the state is trying harder to exclude land that was thought to be agricultural from agricultural exemptions, for purposes of property taxes. Land that isn’t agricultural or a principal homestead is taxed at a much higher rate.

The task force also recommends the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program be kept under the purview of the Michigan Department of Agriculture. “We had some comments that it should be modified to work better with smaller farms,” Denby said.

The report discusses many other issues. For example, more agricultural renaissance zones could help revitalize Detroit with its many “deserts” of unused lots and vacant homes. The report notes the city was once an industrial powerhouse with nearly two million residents; that figure has dropped to 900,000 and will probably drop to approximately 700,000 before it stabilizes.

“Agriculture development is obviously not going to be ‘the savior’ of Detroit’s revitalization,” the report states. “It can be one piece of the puzzle to reestablish abandoned properties, create local, good-paying jobs, help establish healthier lifestyles and ultimately increase property values and encourage development in the city of Detroit.”