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Michigan Ag Council provides personal connections for consumers

A coalition of Michigan agricultural organizations is enhancing transparency throughout the food supply chain.

Michigan Ag Council manager Hailey Gilbert tells Brownfield, “We have commodity partners, we have agribusiness partners, and just having them at the table brings a breadth of knowledge when it comes to amplifying that message and helping to tell the story of the over 46,000 farm families here in the state.”

The Council just completed a two-year USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant which Gilbert says helped reach more than two million consumers.

“There’s a lot of misinformation about agriculture and we get to help to put those pieces into place and answer some questions that consumers may have,” she shares.

The council hosted three Down on MI Farm Dinners over the summer to provide community and social media influencers with a more personal experience to interact with farmers and learn about the state’s diversity.

The Council also supports several volunteer ambassadors which help amplify its work. Gilbert says cranberry and chestnut harvest hangouts were recently completed to highlight fall specialty crop harvests through social media.

Photo courtesy of the Michigan Ag Council.