HICKORY CORNERS, Mich. – The not-for-profit group Michigan Agriculture Advancement (MiAA) has been awarded a $4.9 million grant for a “Climate Smart” commodities project.

Julie Doll, CEO of MiAA, wrote the project proposal, which is planned to last five years. The grant, called a Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant, is from the USDA and will be shared with Star of the West Milling Co. based in Frankenmuth, Mich. “A main focus of the grant is to work with food companies and farmers to figure out price points for crops grown with certain management, for example, no-till or cover crops,” Doll said. “We anticipate that the food companies will be able to then market their cracker, or cereal or whatever as climate friendly or climate smart. In turn, we anticipate that the farmer will receive a premium for the crop.”

MiAA will hire an agronomist with part of the grant money; the agronomist will help farmers collect or manage field data and also help farmers input the data into the data platform that the food company wants the farmers to use, Doll said. “Anecdotally, I can say that there are farmers in the state who want to grow something other than corn and soy, but haven’t found a market for them,” she added. “We are excited to work with these farmers.” The group is targeting crops including wheat and dry edible beans such as pinto beans, navy beans and the like. Part of the grant will also pay for field days and other meetings with groups of farmers, so they can be “supported in growing and selling food grade crops” and to give interested farmers an opportunity to network and learn from each other.

An advisory board will also be set up to help guide the work and will include representatives from Hasenick Brothers Farm, Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station, Midwest GRIT, Van Burn County Conservation District, the Wisconsin Women in Conservation program, and the Bavarian Inn Restaurant of Frankenmuth, Mich.

Star of the West Milling Co. Sustainability Director Lisa Woodke said that the company has many grain elevators across the state that growers sell to. “It will be fairly easy to get the word out about this program to our customer base,” she said. “From there, we are hoping on word of mouth, which is a widely used tool in the agriculture industry. We will use learning circles and field days, as well. We also know that sharing with the youth in agriculture – FFA chapters, Michigan Farm Bureau, Young Farmers, high schools – will allow our message to travel to other places and people that Star of the West may not currently do business with.”

Woodke added that growers are “always interested” in doing more and learning more to help their operations, both financially and in terms of sustainability. Woodke noted that farmers in Michigan generally don’t double crop, so they only get one chance each year, during planting, to try new things. “Farmers are always looking for the next opportunity to get better,” she said. “This grant opportunity is one way they can make changes.”