LANSING – The state should be helping small farmers with safety certification and financing and encouraging development of more farmers’ markets, the Food Policy Council said in its final report approved this month.

The goal of the council’s recommendations is to ensure access to healthy food across the state, and particularly to locally-grown foods, the report said.

“If Michigan residents and institutions shifted just 20 percent of food purchasing to local sources, the supply shift would create jobs, revitalize communities and boost the economy,” the report said.

But for institutions to move to more local purchases, smaller farmers have to be certified in food safety.

“Regardless of the size of the farm, a safe food supply is paramount for the food industry. Help with GAP compliance for food safety certification would allow more farms to scale up and sell their food to a broader market,” the report said.

But in 2010, fewer than 5 percent of the state’s 6,500 fruit and vegetable farmers participated in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) audit, which checks records used to track the source of foods.

Among the barriers to participation in the federal audit is funding, the report said. Small farmers also need funds to purchase equipment and land. The report recommended development of a Healthy Food Financing Initiative that uses federal funds, with a state and local match, to build an alternative financing program to traditional lenders.

“Millions of dollars in federal funds for HFFIs are available,” the report said. “Stakeholders in Michigan are working to generate matching funds needed to accept a federal HFFI grant.”

The report said expanding the number of farmers’ markets would help to build business for small farmers and could give additional access to fresh produce in areas that currently have limited access. But the state needs to provide assistance to not only develop new markets, but also to help those already in place to accept federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly food stamps).

In 2012, only 103 of the 300 farmers’ markets in the state accepted SNAP, which requires that the markets accept electronic benefits transfer cards. “The other 65 percent of farmers markets that don’t yet accept SNAP need training, technical assistance and support to join the program and expand access to healthy food,” the report said.

The release of the council’s final report could also signal its restructuring. The grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation that allowed the current council to function expires in February, officials said, meaning the council would have to be disbanded.

Agriculture and Rural Development Director Jamie Clover Adams recommended that the council convert to an inter-agency collaborative council, which she said would be better positioned to guide implementation of the report than the current body. The new council would include some members of the current one, but also representatives of the various state agencies that would be charged with overseeing the recommendations.

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