New MDARD director eyes opportunities to boost resilience of Michigan farms

MILLERKNOLL

Sixth-generation farmer Tim Boring is bringing firsthand knowledge of the industry to his new position in Lansing as director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Boring hails from a family farm in Stockbridge, about 35 miles southeast of Lansing. The operation itself serves as a microcosm of the diversity of agriculture in the state, given that it produces everything from cucumbers and peppers to tomatoes and mint, as well as the standard grain crops. “Agriculture is a wonderful industry to work in,” Boring said. “I think one of the things that makes it really unique is how many of us have shared values. We all want the same sorts of things. I think being able to focus on those values is really something special.” Boring comes to the role after previously serving as the state executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency and as vice president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association. He spoke with Crain’s Grand Rapids Business to discuss how the department plans to support Michigan farmers and agribusinesses, climate change solutions and his hopes for the coming year. |

BY ABBY POIRIER

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REPORTERS

How did your life on the farm and the legacy of farmers that you come from prepare you for the work you’re doing today?

Coming into a position like this, watching over (the course of) my career what agriculture has evolved to look like, and the shifting landscape of production influences me to be really thoughtful and purposeful about what our agriculture looks like for the benefit of all Michiganders. It’s not just farmers or agribusinesses or food companies. It’s everybody that’s tied to agriculture, everybody that lives here, everybody that eats here, and making sure that we are implementing an approach that’s going to benefit everybody and has some specific deliverables then to rural communities and really using agriculture as a driver for economic investment.

How has agriculture evolved during your time in the industry?

We’ve moved some of our production to different areas of the state that are probably a little bit better suited (to growing them) for a variety of reasons. It just makes more sense to produce them there. Also, the individual areas are a little bit more productive. Each acre probably produces more than it used to 30, 40, 50 years ago. So, we don’t necessarily need as many acres if we’re operating under the current structure. But I think what’s lost within that is the value of how and where things are grown. I certainly see that at the consumer level. I think it’s a challenge for us then to be purposeful in how we make sure that we’ve got more diverse production going on across the state.

Our agricultural economy is better when we’re growing high-value crops like dry beans or carrots or onions or asparagus, and I think we’ve got a population base here who values where these things are grown. So, we need to be understanding of the fact that there’s increased value if we’re producing these sorts of things here in Michigan. When we’re growing diverse crops in rural communities all across the state, there’s a lot of value-added processing that goes into that.

How are Michigan farmers adapting to the effects of climate change?

Farmers can tell you every day today that they’re dealing with more extreme, challenging weather. A lot of that comes through irregular precipitation patterns. We tend to get more rain at the times we get it. There’s also nutrient loss implications of this. When we get more water falling at any one time, it’s a greater risk for transport of nutrients off of fields. So we’re going to be focused on that as well, generally building the resiliency of our ground.

So, controlling that water as it’s moving across field landscapes is really important. Mitigating against drought is seemingly an annual challenge. Fruit production is going to be increasingly at risk of warm periods in the spring that are going to get trees budded out earlier. So, production’s going to be a little bit more challenging just due to early bud break.

But the fact is that these are going to be realities we’re faced with. The solution here is not to move our fruit production across the globe, it’s investing in research to help growers mitigate those sorts of challenges, making sure that we’ve got economic systems in place to weather more variable production patterns.

What are some emerging challenges you see for family farmers today?

Traditionally, larger-scale production has grown through adding animal units or adding acres, and that’s not going to be a viable path for every single operation to grow. We’re operating with a fixed number of acres. So the opportunity then becomes: How do you add more value to the products you’re growing? Climate smart agriculture is certainly a way to do that. But it’s also understanding and recognizing the fact that different sized operations doing different sorts of things all deliver unique value to rural communities. Ensuring that we’ve got opportunities for folks to be active in the food system through a variety of different ways is going to be really important.

What do you mean by that?

Operating a farm beyond your 9-to-5 job still makes you a real farmer. You’re demonstrably contributing to the agricultural economy, and we need to be taking steps to make sure that we support that kind of work. That’s going to be something that we’re going to focus on, ensuring those opportunities for farms of all kinds of sizes to participate in the production system.

As you look ahead, what concerns you about Michigan’s agricultural industry?

I know there’s a reason for a lot of optimism. We’ve got some uncertain economic times ahead of us. Inflation’s certainly a big concern, interest rates, global food chains are increasingly uncertain. We just have so many different aspects impacting our global markets beyond what we thought we might have a few years ago. There are challenges out there. There’s reasons for concern. However, Michigan is exceedingly well-poised to be dealing with these sorts of things. We’ve got a lot of diversity here and there’s a lot of different ways we can maximize what’s going on around us and respond to those challenges.

What sets up Michigan agriculture for success?

We’re in a much better position than a lot of agriculture across our country. We still have reliable access to water. We’ve got a variety of production systems to be able to produce different crops. So I think we’ve got an awful lot of potential here. We’ve got the opportunity ahead of us here at the department to make some significant and meaningful investments in Michigan’s long-term future.

I think there’s a real opportunity here within the department for understanding what makes Michigan special: Where do we have distinct competitive advantages? What’s in the best interest of everybody who lives here in Michigan? I think agriculture specifically with so many long-standing multi-generation farms, multi-generation businesses understand the value of long-term like positioning and long-term building for success. It’s not a short term sort of thing. Our producers and our agribusinesses operate on a multi-generational time scale and we have a unique opportunity to make some investments so that we can build for long-term success here in Michigan.

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