Assessing the Impacts of the Loss of Specialty Crops in Michigan

By Chris Bardenhagen and Sarah Klammer et.al

This report describes the results of our study of the economic contribution of specialty crops in Michigan, the current threats to continued production and what would happen were one or more major commodity industries were lost in our state. The economic contribution was modeled using IMPLAN software with data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Threats to production and descriptions of how agricultural businesses and their communities would be affected by the loss of specialty crop production were developed using grower, packer, processor, and industry key informant interviews and focus groups.

Funding for this study was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant 24-3208.