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Foggy future of Great Lakes climate puts pressure on Michigan cherry growers

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By Andrew McGlashen
The Daily Climate

In the glacier-carved hillsides of northwest Michigan where half of America’s tart cherries grow, climate change is already in full bloom. The state is two degrees warmer on average than it was 30 years ago, and it’s generally wetter, said Michigan State University geographer Jeffrey Andresen, the state climatologist. There’s less ice on the Great Lakes, allowing for more evaporation and more lake-effect snow in cherry country. Farther north, Lake Superior has warmed five degrees since 1979. More importantly for growers, cherry blossoms now appear seven to ten days earlier than they did three decades ago, leaving them susceptible to potentially devastating spring frosts.

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Rooftop gardens all about growth

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – A year ago, Erik Lindberg rented a boom lift with a bucket and hoisted 15 cubic yards of dirt to the roof of his north side remodeling business. In the process, he planted himself firmly in the middle of a growing urban agriculture movement. Lindberg, owner of Community Building & Restoration, turned to rooftop gardening in the belief that his actions might encourage people to grow their own food or buy locally grown produce. And by selling the vegetables he grows to subscribers and a nearby Outpost Natural Foods store, he may have become Milwaukee’s first commercial rooftop farmer. More

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Greening the Herds: A New Diet to Cap Gas

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(NY) The New York Times – Libby, age 6, and the 74 other dairy cows on Guy Choiniere’s farm are at the heart of an experiment to determine whether a change in diet will help them belch less methane, a potent heat-trapping gas that has been linked to climate change. Since January, cows at 15 farms across Vermont have had their grain feed adjusted to include more plants like alfalfa and flaxseed – substances that, unlike corn or soy, mimic the spring grasses that the animals evolved long ago to eat.  More

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Urban gardening lets women grow

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(MI) The Detroit News – Gardening is quiet and hopeful, a specific remedy for despair that requires only soil, water, sunshine and human will. That’s why, in the shadow of a long-closed Catholic school, in a ravaged east side neighborhood, a woman steers a small tractor through a field, leaving crisply trimmed grass behind. That’s why “urban farming” is suddenly being talked about as a practical way to reclaim the Detroit prairie: It nurtures people and feeds them. More

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Study on Lake Huron bacteria points to agriculture

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(MI) Bay City Times – A university study says agriculture is the main contributor of E. coli bacteria to Lake Huron. The study by the University of Guelph and Ontario’s Environment Ministry looked at the Canadian side of the lake. But a Michigan regulator says the same thing could be happening in the Thumb – home to numerous large livestock operations and ongoing problems with beach muck, or dead algae, fouling shorelines. More

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Organic Dairies Watch the Good Times Turn Bad

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(NY) New York Times – When Ken Preston went organic on his dairy farm here in 2005, he figured that doing so would guarantee him what had long been elusive: a stable, high price for the milk from his cows. Sure enough, his income soared 20 percent, and he could finally afford a Chevy Silverado pickup to help out. The dairy conglomerate that distributed his milk wanted everything Mr. Preston could supply. Supermarket orders were skyrocketing. More

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With CAFOs, farms have many animals — even more waste

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(MI) The Detroit News – Most of them, if not all, smell and smell bad. Some pollute Michigan’s air and water and increase human health risks. One of their main byproducts is, to put it politely, excrement — and lots of it. And for better or worse, they might be a big part of Michigan’s farming future. The practice of crowding more livestock onto fewer acres, known as concentrated animal feeding operations, has helped many Michigan farms survive and even thrive in an era when many midsize farms are being squeezed out of business.

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Community farms sprouting up across area

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(MI) Muskegon Chronicle – A “Honk if you need help” sign and free-roaming chickens and cats serve as the welcoming committee at Stone Road Eco Farm. Owners Tom and Laura VandenBosch are usually busy working somewhere on the farm, but they are laid-back folks who enjoy visitors. For the last three growing seasons, they have tried to make a living by opening their farm to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). More

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Being environmentally friendly on the farm takes extra effort

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(MI) The Alpena News – As with any business, agricultural producers must be constantly aware of the environment and how their operations have an impact. For the Tolan family, manure constitutes the largest portion of the Sanborn Township dairy operation’s efforts for maintaining environmental compliance. The Tolans’ cows produce about three million gallons of manure per year. The cow stalls are bedded with sand semi annually, which provides a cushion for the cow to lay on as well as benefits for overall cow health. The excess sand from the stalls mix with the manure that the cows produce.

Land

Urban villages in Detroit’s future?

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – In a new vision of Detroit’s future, a team of visiting urban planners suggests the city might one day resemble the English countryside, with distinct urban villages surrounded by farms, fields and meadows. The idea may sound improbable, but Alan Mallach, a New Jersey-based planner who led the visiting team, said Detroit is evolving in that direction anyway, with large chunks of the city now largely abandoned. More