By Lillian Williams
As Michigan loses more farms, rural communities are experiencing significant changes, experts say.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that Michigan lost about 1,300 farms between 2023 and 2024.
Matt Munsell, a farmer growing corn, wheat and pumpkins in Fowlerville, said that as the agricultural economy has gotten worse, local farmers have been presented with two options for survival.
“Either you have to keep adding acres to get more land to cover equipment costs and all that, or you have to diversify into higher-value crops,” Munsell said.
Michigan State University professor Bill Knudson agreed that where possible, farms will continue to grow.
“This will mean that there will be fewer farms in a given region, but those farms that remain will be larger, and those larger farms may or may not service or do business in a rural community,” said Knudson of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics.
That would be a big change from how farmers have conducted their business historically, and Michigan Farm Bureau’s commodity and regulatory relations manager, Theresa Sisung, said that could damage rural economies.
“Farmers typically do business locally, whether they work with local equipment dealers or parts suppliers or the local hardware store, or even doing business at local restaurants,” Sisung said.
If those local relationships end, many of those businesses may close.
Tim Boring, the director of the state Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said farms have already begun relying on resources outside of their community.
“A lot of the sourcing of individual farm products doesn’t come from the community anymore,” Boring said. “It doesn’t come regionally – it comes globally.”
Such economic damage can also alter the culture of rural communities.
Munsell said, “Unless people start coming in, then you lose that auto parts store, you lose the hardware store. We lose that rural identity of community.”
Munsell said that trend has already begun in Fowlerville.
“Here in Livingston County, subdivisions and industry are growing too, and it’s hard to match those land values with agriculture,” Munsell said.
Munsell and Sisung agree that the loss of farmland comes down to high input costs – for example, the price of seed and fertilizer – and low commodity prices.
“You can’t take high inputs and low commodity prices and buy land against the subdivision,” Munsell said.
The declining population in rural areas creates additional economic strain.
Boring said, “We’re to the point now that you look at where we are with rural communities, and a lot of times there’s not a lot of optimism.”
“Incomes are declining, people are choosing to move away and pursue careers and lives in other places,” he said.
Knudson said that as the agricultural economy continues to worsen, some Michigan communities have other industries that they can rely on.
“A lot of rural areas in this state are more dependent on retirees moving to lower-cost communities with more amenities,” Knudson said. “The economies in a lot of rural areas, especially in Northern Michigan, are a little bit more diversified and not as dependent on farming.”