The Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) elected its new officers for 2024 and welcomed Kathy Garthe, a Leelanau cherry farmer as a new commissioner.
MDARD has the responsibility to recommend, and in some cases determine, policy on food, agricultural, and rural development issues. The Commission is a bipartisan body of five citizens appointed by the Governor, according to a press release.
Garthe will serve on the commission until December 2027. The commission has been in service since 1921.
“(MDARD) tries to cover a broad range of agriculture and rural development in its five members ... We’ve got a nice broad range of people,” Garthe said. “We feel very pleased that the governor appointed someone who is up in the fruit growing region of the state, even though we certainly have a lot of other agriculture going on up here .. I bring a perspective from our particularly robust set of agriculture in northern Michigan.”
Garthe said the commission is interested in climate resiliency, sustainable agriculture, food safety, agricultural practices across the industry, and management of imports and exports, among others.
“Being on the commission, I can’t actually have much of an impact on the industry directly. As a member of the fruit growing community one thing that has us all concerned is the need for more ability to sell our fruit in Michigan,” she said. “Increasingly, fruit has to be shipped out of this region in order to be processed. We would love to see some processing closer to home.”
Garthe is the vice president of regional system development at Munson HealthCare System as well as being a co-owner of a fruit farm.
“I’ve spent a lot of years on the road moving among the different communities of northern Michigan,” she said. “(This commission) is a bipartisan commission. I’m an independent so part of that is needing to fill a position with somebody who was politically independent as well.”
Garthe is also involved with the Leelanau Conservancy as chair of the farmland committee.
Garthe is the first Leelanau resident to have been selected to this commission.
