MDARD asks appropriators for funds to boost biosecurity, diagnostics and freshwater programs

Director Tim Boring of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and Rural Development and Natural Resources that the department’s recommended budget would prioritize biosecurity, plant and soil diagnostics, export certification capacity and reauthorization of the Freshwater Protection Fund.

Boring said Michigan’s agricultural profile is changing and warned of falling crop diversity: “We are now listing 200 commodities produced here in Michigan … rather than the 300 we would have used weeks or months ago,” he said, citing U.S. National Agricultural Statistics Service thresholds.

The nut graf: the department framed the budget ask as investments to protect the state’s food supply, support farm-level disease response and keep more testing and technical expertise in Michigan. Those steps are intended to preserve market access for growers and reduce costs for farmers who now ship soil and plant samples out of state for analysis.

Most immediately, Boring tied the request to lessons learned from recent animal-disease responses. He described the department’s work during outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and a separate dairy response…