68 signatures
Collection finished
Petition is addressed to: Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
We, the undersigned growers of Michigan wine grapes do hereby petition the Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to consider adoption of a new marketing program under the Agricultural Commodities Marketing Act, P.A. 232 of 1965, as amended. The program shall be focused primarily on funding for research, education and promotion to improve and support Michigan wine grape and wine production and consumer awareness.
We call on the Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to appoint a temporary committee composed of Michigan wine grape growers to develop a proposed program, to consider the program at public hearings, and to conduct a referendum of wine grape growers after the hearings to consider approval of the program developed by the temporary committee.
Reason
The program shall be focused primarily on funding for research, education and promotion to improve and support Michigan wine grape and wine production and consumer awareness.
Petition to be signed only by those Michigan wine grape growers who grow or cause to be grown more than 3 tons of grapes for the production of wine for commercial use in any one of the last three years.
The petition is only to say they are interested in exploring the possibility of a 232 checkoff program. It is in the verbage at the top of the petition. Signing the petition will NOT put a 232 program in place. There are additional steps for that to happen.
If / when sufficient signatures are obtained the next step is a committee of growers appointed by the Governor to explore what the assessment would entail. That would involve the committee putting together some ideas with input from the grower community and then having public meetings in the NW, SW and possibly another meeting to represent other areas of the state with vineyards to seek input and discussion among the growers.
If there seems to be support from growers the next step is a statewide referendum by all wine grape growers to approve the program. If approved, this process continues with review / renewal or not every 5 years.
Currently, there is no unified grower group that represents grape growers for the entire state. Importantly, the 232 funds give growers a seat at the table with MDARD and with MSU / Project GREEEN.
UPDATE:
From: Deacon, Brad (MDARD) <deaconb9@michigan.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, August 6, 2024 8:19 AM
To: Brian Lillie <BLillie@chateauchantal.com>
Cc: Guardiola, Jamie (MDARD) <GuardiolaJ1@michigan.gov>
Subject: RE: Public Act 232 for Wine Grapes
Brian – that’s correct, though there are some other nuances, importantly the definition of producer:
"Producer" means a person engaged in the business of producing, or causing to be produced for any market, an agricultural commodity or agricultural commodity input in quantity beyond that person's own family use, and having a value at first point of sale of more than $800.00 or of an amount as otherwise expressly provided for in a marketing program for the agricultural commodity or agricultural commodity input in any 1 growing and marketing season within the last 3 years.
So, someone who is growing but not enough to meet the definition would not be assessed or be eligible to vote on the program. Relatedly, the petition could further limit who would be part of the proposal. One of the challenges starting a check-off is trying to figure out how many producers there are and how to ensure they get notice and are able to participate in the process.
Happy to discuss further.
Also, I’ve attached an overview document for starting a program under PA 232.
Brad Deacon
Director, Office of Legal Affairs
& Emergency Management
Michigan Department of Agriculture
and Rural Development
From: Brian Lillie <BLillie@chateauchantal.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 6, 2024 7:32 AM
To: Guardiola, Jamie (MDARD) <GuardiolaJ1@michigan.gov>; Deacon, Brad (MDARD) <deaconb9@michigan.gov>
Subject: Public Act 232 for Wine Grapes
CAUTION: This is an External email. Please send suspicious emails to abuse@michigan.gov
Good morning,
I hope this note finds you well.
We are in process of exploring a check-off program for our industry. I want to confirm my reading of the statute PA 232. My interpretation is that I need signatures from 25% of the total wine grape growers for the petition piece and the 51% of growers representing 51% of acreage grown in commercial production for approval for the referendum piece.
Thanks for any insight that you may be able to offer.
Brian Lillie
Vice President of Hospitality Operations and Distribution
The Award Winning Chateau Chantal Winery
President
Michigan Wine Collaborative
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Petition details
Petition started:
05/24/2024
Petition ends:
09/27/2024
Region:
Michigan
Topic:
Agriculture
News
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Petition was submitted
on 07 Oct 2024Good afternoon, folks,
I am writing to both update and to ask for help.
The State of Michigan is in process validating our petition. Some of you may have been contacted already if they are unable to confirm your vineyard through their records. We are almost ready go to the next phase, but we have some additional housekeeping. Unfortunately, we cannot use ANY Anonymous signatures. Losing these signatures of support could be detrimental. There are approximately 20 outstanding. Losing these could put us below the required threshold of 25% of wine grape growers in Michigan. If you are one of the anonymous supporters, you can still support anonymously by emailing Jamie Guardiola at the Office of Legal Affairs at MDARD . She will accept this as... further -
Petition was submitted
on 18 Sep 2024Good morning, everyone,
I have an action item for some of us that is necessary for the purpose of this petition. I have submitted our petition to MDARD. Unfortunately, due to the permissions of this site, some have signed the petition anonymously and these signatures are not viewable by anyone outside of Open Petition. These unviewable signatures will not be accepted until MDARD can vet that these are real humans and true to the purpose. There seems to be approximately 20 signatures on here that are needing to be vetted. If you are one of these people, I simply ask that you email- or even cut and paste this statement below to Jamie Guardiola at MDARD stating that
"To Whom It May Concern,
I wish to remain anonymous, but I am one of the 20... further -
Ready for submitting - New information
on 14 Aug 20248.14.24
Good afternoon,
I wanted to update everyone on this petition with the latest findings that I have learned through conversations with the good people at MDARD.
I learned that the barrier for signatures is much less than what I initially thought. I was under the impression that we needed 51% of wine grape growers to sign. That is actually too many. This 51% actually is what is needed for the referendum to pass when that time comes. We actually need 25% of commercial wine grape growers to sign to move the petition forward to the state, which will trigger the referendum. As of a study from 2020 that explored farmers, acreage and varieties being grown in Michigan, the number that was determined for Michigan farmers was 257.
www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Michigan/Publications/Michigan_Rotational_Surveys/mi_fruit20/Grapes%20hops.pdf... further
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