This week, Michigan farmers, municipal officials, rural entrepreneurs and many other individuals gathered in Leelanau County for the 2024 Agritourism Summit, kicking off with a few different farm tours. This is a two-day event that is aimed to facilitate conversations and share practices around agritourism and agriculture here in Michigan. But what exactly is agritourism?
“We like to define it as a combination of tourism and agriculture in a certain location. So those are two of the biggest industries in Michigan. And so, you can have hayrides, you can have corn mazes, there’s distilleries, wineries. So, anything that gets people out onto the farm so they can purchase local products and help support the local economy,” said Rob Sirrine, MSU Community Foods Systems Educator.
Even if you aren’t directly involved in agritourism, it’s an important conversation to become familiar with.
“It’s not just this area. I do think, though, that that as you look around, this area has so, so many unique advantages. The rolling terrain and the fruit and the water. So, people are already coming here. And if we can help them learn about local agriculture, it just benefits the local community,” said Sirrine.
The pre-summit farm tours took attendees to five different farms. Farmers local to Leelanau County were excited to share their knowledge and welcome other Michigan farmers to continue this important conversation and collaboration.
“We told people a little bit about what we do in general and make hard cider, but then also some of the challenges that we went to in getting approval with the township in this particular township and also things that we did for opening our tasting room. So, it’s kind of to give people an idea of what we had to do to set up our business,” said owner of Tandem Ciders, Dan Young.
Those who attended the pre-summit farm tours said it was an incredibly impactful and educational experience.
It’s great. It’s just a great experience. It makes me sad - A lot of other industries maybe don’t offer. Other farmers and business owners just opening their doors and letting you walk through their kitchens and their storage rooms. We’ve had a lot of conversations today, like what’s been your biggest struggle. What’s the most exciting part. There’s been sharing about costs and just compliance and a lot of things that it’s nice that it’s such an open community,” said summit attendee and owner of Uncle John’s Cider Mill, Dede Beck.
After attending the farm tours throughout Leelanau County, attendees also had the opportunity to continue learning about agritourism through a daylong summit at the Haggerty Center in Traverse City.
“It’s just this unknown. Like, what does this do? How is this going to change my life and how is it going to change, you know, my town and my village? But I think just to approach it with an open mind, this is like a good thing. More people are finding out, you know, what we do, especially up here in agriculture. Agriculture is such an unknown for some people. You know, if you live in a large metro area, sometimes you just don’t know where potatoes come from and how lettuce is grown, and you know how fruit trees look. And I think that’s an important thing to know that,” said Young.