Fruit growers and processors in Michigan might get some help in the form of low interest loans if an expected package of bills moves through the legislature.
The loans are aimed at providing relief to those who lost most of their fruit crops after an unusual spring warm spell was followed by extended freezing temperatures.
MLive reports Michigan Department of Agriculture Director Keith Creagh said today the bills would create "five-year low interest loans":
The loans, which will be administered by banks and agricultural lenders, will meet an estimated total economic need of some $300 million in the state’s fruit growing and processing industry, Creagh said while attending the Michigan Food Processing and Agribusiness Summit.
Securing the loan guarantees at a low interest rate of 1 percent or 2 percent could cost the state about $15 million, Creagh said. The 5-year loans would be structured so borrowers would only pay interest in the first two years, he said.
Creagh says he'll also seek federal financial support for Michigan fruit growers and processors.
When you scoop up ice cream with cherries in it this summer or add a handful of dried cherries to your salad chances are the fruit won’t be from Michigan. Or even from the United States.
Extremely unusual weather this spring has crippled the state’s entire tree fruit industry. The bulk of the nation’s tart cherry crop is produced here.
The official estimate for the size of the cherry crop won’t be in for a few more weeks.
Even the most optimistic projections for the amount of fruit on the trees amounts to less than ten percent of what the state typically grows.
Tim Brian is president of Smeltzer Orchards in Benzie County.
He grabs a stem from a tart cherry tree and with his thumbnail slices open several buds.
"And right there you can see that brown pistil right there, that’s cooked. There isn’t a single good one in this whole cluster."
A bizarre stretch of hot weather in early March woke trees up from winter dormancy. That was followed by more than a dozen nights of hard freezing temperatures.
Brian thinks there will be entire orchards that won’t be harvested at all this year even if there is a scattering of fruit in them.
"I mean, with $4 fuel, even if there is only ten cherries on a tree that’s not going to be economically feasible to harvest."
Smeltzer’s has been in the business for well over a century. The company runs a medium sized processing plant that freezes and dries cherries.
Inside the plant, a dozen people are pitting and sorting sweet cherries. The thing is… these cherries are from Chile.
"Normally we would not do this. This is actually the first time we’ve done something like this."
I drove around with her as we followed trucks laden with liquefied manure and watched as they spread the liquid on nearby farm fields.
It's a practice that can add nutrients back to the land if done right, but with the huge quantities of manure these CAFOs are dealing with year round - doing it right is something they've had trouble with.
And Henning, a "Sierra Club Water Sentinel," has been watching them - reporting them to state officials when they weren't complying with the law.
It's clear from visiting these communities that these large scale farms have caused rifts among neighbors; some like the income they make selling corn and renting land to CAFO operators, but others feel CAFOs threaten their health and the beauty of rural farming life.
Working as an environmental activist in rural Michigan (she formed the group Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan), Henning says she's felt those divisions first-hand - saying she's been harassed and threatened on numerous occasions.
In 2010, Henning was given a $150,000 Goldman Environmental Prize for her grassroots activism. From the Goldmand Prize website:
Family farmer and activist Lynn Henning exposed the egregious polluting practices of livestock factory farms in rural Michigan, gaining the attention of the federal EPA and prompting state regulators to issue hundreds of citations for water quality violations.
She's also been to the White House to meet President Obama. And now, here she is on Bill Maher. To watch, we have to pull up a chair up to "imnewshound's" television - he has subscription to HBO, after all (and being HBO and Bill Maher, be warned - there is some foul language):
A devastating frost has wiped out grapes grown for juice in southwestern Michigan. John Jasper, a surveyor for Welch's Foods, tells TV station ABC57 that he went through hundreds of acres before even finding a live bud. He estimates more than 10,000 acres were destroyed Thursday, mostly in Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties.
Credit Photo courtesy of Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station
Cherry blossoms arrived early this year. To look for damage, researchers cut into the flower parts to look at four fruit buds in each blossom. Each bud is capable of forming a cherry.
A hard freeze has wiped out a big portion of the cherry crop in Northwest Michigan this spring. The area produces more than half the state’s cherries that end up in desserts, juice and as dried fruit.
Michigan’s asparagus season has started early because of the warmer than usual weather this spring. But farmers are worried they don’t have enough workers to harvest the crop.
“Being a former migrant worker I can tell you that in the past Michigan has had a wealth of workers coming to Michigan. It was destination state,” Belen Ledezma said. She’s the Director of Migrant, Immigrant and Seasonal Worker Services for the Michigan’s Workforce Development Agency.
Ledezma says the huge crop diversity in Michigan means migrant workers have a variety of jobs to choose from throughout the year. But this year farmers are struggling to find enough workers to harvest. “I think we’re starting to recognize that the same labor pool that we’re used to is no longer coming to Michigan,” Ledezma said.
Ledezma says the state is trying to help farmers recruit local workers to harvest asparagus. Her agency will host a job fair in southwest Michigan on Thursday in hopes of filling more than 220 immediate openings on asparagus farms.
Phil Korson of the Cherry Marketing Institute says it probably will take another few weeks to determine the extent of the damage. But he says every time temperatures drop into the 20s, there will be crop damage.
Temperatures shot into the 80s for five consecutive March days in the northwestern Lower Peninsula. That caused trees to bloom early. But things quickly returned to normal. The National Weather Service says Leelanau County has had six nights below freezing and three nights in the 20s since the warmup.
The Michigan Farm Bureau says millions of buds froze at their most vulnerable development stage.
Growers say they hope to salvage a decent crop.
This past February, Interlochen Public Radio's Bob Allen reported on concerns about the changing climate and its effect on fruit trees in northern Michigan.
In his report, Northern Michigan fruit growers brace for a changing climate, Allen spoke with Duke Elsner. As an agricultural extension agent for more than 20 years in the Traverse City area, Elsner told Allen this past winter has been the "most bizarre winter weather he’s ever seen."
Growers were worried back in February about what happened this week, a frost after cherry trees blossomed.
Allen spoke with Jeff Andresen, the state’s climatologist and a professor of geology at Michigan State:
Andresen’s research shows an overall increase in temperatures of two degrees statewide in the last thirty years.
That’s pushing fruit trees to blossom earlier by as much as a week to ten days.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the last date of spring frost also was shifting earlier to keep pace. But it’s not.
That means the buds that produce the fruit are more exposed to the kind of freeze that wiped out the cherry crop in 2002.
Growers are tallying up the damage after the recent hard freeze.
We'll have more on how the cherry crop is doing in a story from Bob Allen on next week's Environment Report.
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