Michigan Legislative Website

Sec. 263a.

(1) By January 1, 2013, the Michigan State University college of agriculture and natural resources, MSU extension, and MSU AgBioResearch, in partnership with the department of agriculture and rural development and other stakeholders, shall establish a strategic growth initiative for the Michigan food and agriculture industry. This initiative shall address the following goals as established at the 2011 governor's summit for production agriculture:

(a) Increasing the sector's total economic impact from today's $71,000,000,000.00 to $100,000,000,000.00.

(b) Doubling Michigan's agricultural exports from $1,750,000,000.00 to $3,500,000,000.00.

(c) Increasing jobs in the food and agriculture sector by 10%.

(d) Improving access by Michigan consumers to healthy foods by 20%.

(2) The initiative described in subsection (1) shall be patterned after Project GREEEN, shall emphasize priorities as set by the Michigan food and agricultural industry, and shall include a commitment to continuous communication, input, and interaction among stakeholders in government and industry and at Michigan State University. Similar to Project GREEEN, the initiative shall also include a commitment to communicating results and impacts to stakeholders and the legislature based on a mutually established set of metrics designed to assure MSU extension and AgBioResearch programs are contributing to the goals described in subsection (1)(a) to (d).

(3) Not later than September 30, 2013, Michigan State University shall submit a report to the house and senate appropriations subcommittees on agriculture and on higher education, the house and senate standing committees on agriculture, the house and senate fiscal agencies, and the state budget director for the preceding school fiscal year detailing, but not limited to:

(a) Total funds expended by MSU AgBioResearch and by MSU extension service identified by state, local, private, federal, and university fund sources.

(b) The metric goals that were used to evaluate the impacts of programs operated by MSU extension and MSU AgBioResearch. It is the intent of the legislature that the following metric goals will be used to evaluate the impacts of those programs:

(i) Increasing the number of agriculture and food-related firms collaborating with and using services of research and extension faculty and staff by 3% per year.

(ii) Increasing the number of individuals utilizing MSU extension's educational services by 5% per year.

(iii) Increasing external funds generated in support of research and extension, beyond state appropriations, by 10% over the amounts generated in the past 3 state fiscal years.

(c) A review of major programs within both MSU AgBioResearch and MSU extension with specific reference to accomplishments, impacts, and the metrics described in subdivision (b), including a specific accounting of Project GREEEN expenditures and the impact of those expenditures.