A number of farm policy priorities are on the agenda as Michigan Farm Bureau holds its state annual meeting this week at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids.
Michigan Ag Today’s C.J. Miller chatted with Carl Bednarski, Michigan Farm Bureau President, about the top policy priorities the organization has for 2024.
“Some of the issues that are coming up—we take a look at solar [land use]. That is top of the list of those projects that are happening,” says Bednarski. “[Not only] the demand on prime farmland, but then also [Governor Whitmer’s] recent signing with the Preemption Bill and taking that control away from our local zoning boards. That is huge. All of our rural communities want to say they know best for their communities and not to have a three-person panel appointed by the governor to tell them what they should be doing on their siting.”
Farm labor and challenges with the H-2A Visa program have been another concern that Michigan Farm Bureau plans to address with federal lawmakers in 2024.
“The H-2A program is very crucial for producers that hire seasonal labor. We’re trying to do is to separate the issues. We keep talking about immigration and H-2A in the same sentence. However, they are two separate things,” says Bednarski. “[The H-2A workers] want to come here to work and they want to go back home. The thing is that we make it so difficult with the red tape that is involved. On top of that, we need to find a way to freeze or do something with this adverse effect wage rate [for farm laborers].”
One additional policy priority that Michigan Farm Bureau hopes to tackle with state lawmakers is a plan to reduce the deer population. According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, there are about two million deer in Michigan as of 2022. Ten years ago, the deer population was estimated to be about 300,000. In addition, the number of deer hunting licenses in the state have sharply decreased, leading to crop damage, as well as an increase in deer-vehicle crashes.
“It has died down for a little bit, but it’s back with a vengeance is the number of deer and the damage the deer are doing in this state. It’s back at the front burner again,” according to Bednarski.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news report with Michigan Farm Bureau President Carl Bednarski and they discuss the top farm policy priorities for 2024 during the Michigan Farm Bureau State Annual Meeting in Grand Rapids.
