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Michigan ag sector stands to benefit from education & infrastructure focus

Governor Gretchen Whitmer stressed her gratitude to essential employees during her State of the State address this week highlighting the Futures for Frontliners program in which food and ag workers can enroll for tuition-free community college education.

“They stayed at work so the rest of us could stay home and they earned our full support,” she says.  “More than 82,000 frontline heroes have been accepted into the program.”

She called for Michiganders to be resilient in 2021 and support from the legislature for her Back to Work plan as well as local road funding, clean water, and additional plans for COVID recovery.

Michigan Farm Bureau’s Rob Anderson tells Brownfield they’re grateful Whitmer wants to focus on local roads and plans to emphasize the importance of infrastructure with law makers.

“We’re very gratified to hear that the governor took some focus on local road funding and wants to pursue those conversations,” he says.

He says Farm Bureau will also be calling for adequate funding of the Michigan Department of Agriculture as well as the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program this year.