New website posts food safety inspection reports

By EDITH ZHOU
Capital News Service
LANSING – With the holidays around the corner, nobody wants their festivities ruined by poisoned food. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has a lunched an online system that enables consumers to easily access inspection results from more than 19,000 groceries and other retail food establishments. MiSafe gives consumers access to inspection results for grocery and convenience stores, including violations since September 2011. The website is www.michigan.gov/foodsafety. Violations are issued for problems such as post-dated foods that, if not resolved, may lead to foodborne illness, food contamination or an environmental health hazard.

Farm exports rising, new markets sought

By WEI YU
Capital News Service
LANSING – With a new South Korea Free Trade Agreement, state officials are pushing hard for more Michigan-based companies to sell their products abroad. The pact eliminated all duties such as tariffs and import quotas and virtually all other restrictions on trade between the two countries. The most recent figures show Michigan ranks eighteenth in the United States for agricultural exports, with a total value of $1.75 billion. It is the seventh-largest exporting state for fruit and processed fruit products and the ninth-largest exporter of vegetables and vegetable products, according to the state Department of Agriculture. More than one-third of Michigan agricultural commodities are exported each year.

Bill would change oversight of deer farms

By SHANNAN O’NEIL
Capital News Service
Bill would change oversight of deer farms
By SHANNAN O’NEIL
Capital News Service
LANSING- Bob Northrup said he and his friends follow the rules and fill out their paperwork on their deer and elk farms.
But Northrup said he has also seen his friends penalized for a mix up of paperwork and that worries him. Two departments run the regulation of deer and elk farms and the farmers have seen issues, said Northrup, owner of Amber Elk Ranch in Ludington. Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, has introduced a bill to make the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development solely responsible for these farms. Some farmers in his district are unhappy with the Department of Natural Resources’ role. “I’m not real warm and fuzzy,” said Northrup, about the Department of Natural Resources regulating his farm. They would rather quarantine or decommission a farm when an issue arises than work through it, he said.