Fresh, Local, Dependable: Nurturing UP Food Systems

By Kelley Christensen, Michigan Tech Science and Technology Publications Writer
Posted May 12, 2020, on Michigan Tech News
Reprinted in part with permission 

Michigan Tech facilitates conversations among farmers, farmers market coordinators and area food banks to ensure people can get the food they need while supporting local growers and increasing food access efforts in the UP. (Photo courtesy Michigan Tech University)

Michigan Tech is partnering with local agencies to strengthen western Upper Peninsula food systems during the pandemic and beyond.

It’s said that to survive and thrive in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it takes a healthy serving of "sisu" -- a Finnish word that roughly translates as "grit." The term is also apt for describing how scientists, health care professionals and planners have pivoted to ensure Yoopers have access to nutritious, local food and to gardening despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last fall, Angie Carter, assistant professor of environmental and energy justice, received a Michigan Technological University Research Excellence Fund grant to study local food systems in the Keweenaw Peninsula, including community gardeners, community-supported agriculture (CSA) farming, and farmers markets. When Michigan's "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order went into effect, at first Carter thought she couldn’t continue her research, as it had included numerous face-to-face interviews and in-person meetings.

Then she recognized the opportunity the stay-home order provided -- it was a chance to strengthen the area’s food system for the long term. When people source their food locally, they aren’t reliant on far-flung supply chains, which have been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this new focus to Carter’s research could be conducted remotely.... Click here for the rest of this article.