Michigan

It’s shaping up to be a good year for students in Indian Country. For the first time in school history, students at Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College in Mount Pleasant, Michigan can register to take physics thanks to an upgraded laboratory. And at Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake, Minnesota...

Farmers markets are evolving. They are moving away from seasonal, parking lot produce stands and becoming year-round, self-sustaining, community hubs. As more and more cities and communities look for ways to strengthen their local economies, we’ve seen more emphasis placed on both the infrastructure...

Hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation, and the State of Michigan is making sure that nutrition assistance programs don’t either. I recently traveled to the west side of the state to see some of the inspiring work our partners are doing to make sure that no one in their community has to face hunger.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager made two visits to Michigan in the last few days and joining him in his travels was Rural Development State Director for Michigan James J. Turner and several of our staff as he crossed the state.

When he decided to get back into farming five years ago, Tony An­drejczuk faced more challenges than most farmers. Andrejczuk lost the use of his legs after a work acci­dent in 1997, and being able to access his family’s entire farm is one of his biggest obstacles. Andrejczuk grew up farming with...

When most people think of Orlando, Florida, they envision exciting theme parks, Cinderella’s castle and a mouse with big ears. But when USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack visited Orlando on February 24 th, it was with a different vision in mind.

Yesterday Isabella Pellet held the grand opening for its new facility in Weidman, just a few minutes outside of Mount Pleasant.

Lee Township is a small community tucked into Michigan’s southwest corner in the rural area between Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lake Michigan. On Tuesday, Aug. 16, the township officially broke ground on a new fire station – though construction work has already begun. The project was made possible...

Michigan always has unpredictable weather, and Friday’s was exactly what one would expect – unexpected. I’m sure when they scheduled the groundbreaking for the Fremont community anaerobic digester, NOVI Energy assumed that late June would see warm weather and clear skies. Instead, the temperature...

“The streams of a watershed are like the body’s circulatory system,” says Todd Warner, Natural Resources Director of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), in the northwest Upper Peninsula of Michigan, along the Keweenaw Bay of Lake Superior. KBIC and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service...