A Flint company is among the awardees of a recent round of grants to boost regional food systems from the
Michigan Department of Agriculture of Rural Development.
Uptown Reinvestment Corporation in Flint received $75,000 for its project proposal to create sustainable business opportunities for residents and farms in Flint and Genesee counties.
Two other mid-Michigan grant awards were made: the Allen Neighborhood Center in Lansing got $72,856 to provide training, mentoring, and marketing opportunities to mid-Michigan growers; and Michigan State University's department of biosystems and agriculture engineering, in East Lansing, got $67,976 to research the feasibility of using sugar beet pulp to produce chitosan for food and agriculture applications.
"The awarded proposals reflect the diversity of Michigan's $96 billion food and agriculture industry," says MDARD director Jamie Clover Adams. "These projects illustrate the critical role the food and agriculture sector plays in our state's economic reinvention."
The other projects awarded grant funding were in Hart, Dexter, Albion, Chatham, Dewitt, Charlotte, Rudyard, Petoskey, Benton Harbor and Detroit. In total, 53 project proposals were submitted to MDARD and 13 were approved.
Writer: Kim Eggleston
Source: Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
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