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Rural solutions required
ByMarch 5, 2022Levi Teitel | March 5, 2022
Michigan’s Great Lakes and the incredible resources they provide are what make it unique. But for too long, policymakers have put large corporations and their lobbyists in the driver’s seat and have failed to take serious steps towards averting the climate crisis and protecting our environment. The state has a chance of correcting its course and achieving the ambitious goals set forth in the MI Healthy Climate Plan, which is led by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). This plan will put us on a path towards carbon neutrality. The plan is a great starting point, but there are still ways it could be improved to address the climate crisis, which is the biggest challenge of our lives. To fight the climate crisis, we must put affected communities first, including Michigan’s rural communities.
Climate change has a significant impact on our agriculture, our ecosystems and the air we breath. These concerns are particularly harmful to rural communities and their resilience. In recent times, rural economies have been the site of extractive industries like logging, mining, and factory farming. This has contributed greatly to the climate crisis. Lax government regulations have led to environmental destruction for the sakes of making money.
At a time when we’re seeing record-high corporate profits and accelerating climate disasters, it should be clear that change is needed. That’s why the MI Healthy Climate Plan needs to include the following: insights and takeaways from the Upper Peninsula Energy Task Force, attention to regenerative farming practices and agricultural pollution, and energy cooperatives and community choice aggregation as alternatives to corporate-owned energy utilities.
It is a good idea to stop using carbon-emitting fossil fuels. The findings of the UP Energy Task Force can help. The largest residential propane users in the country are mostly from Michigan. Yet, propane is not affordable for many Michigan families. It is often unregulated and subjected to corporate-driven price inflation. By including findings from the UP Energy Task Force—like installing cost-saving electric heat pumps at a large scale, updating and weatherizing existing housing stock, making grain drying on farms more energy efficient, and having better transportation options, which is lacking in rural Michigan—we can lessen our climate damage and save families and farmers money.
In order to improve the environment, along with the recommendations from UP Energy Task Force we need more regenerative farming. Rural communities are dealing with the stench and pollution that comes with factory farming—namely, from animal waste that seeps into our waterways. The MI Healthy Climate plan must take concrete steps in order to curb pollution from factory farms, as well as curb overall waste. False solutions such as anaerobic digestion should not be included in the MI Healthy Climate Plan.
The plan should include more steps to encourage regenerative agriculture than the current plan. Regenerative farming is a practice that has been used for millennia in Indigenous communities. It is just now being adopted by Western food systems. Regenerative farming employs conservation practices such as cover crops and no till farming to reduce soil erosion and chemical runsoff. Doing these things at a large scale will be essential to lessen the damage we’re already seeing in our water.
We need to ensure that the impacted communities are empowered to make their own decisions about energy use. This means that they have alternatives to corporate-owned energy utilities. Electric cooperatives have been leading the charge in rural Michigan for decades in providing quality service at a fair price, while also using renewable resources. Cooperatives are being joined by community choice aggregation in Michigan to address the needs for low-income families, communities and Tribal people who have been ignored by corporate-owned utilities. CCA gives residents of a community the power to choose where their energy is coming from. The village of L’Anse on the shores of Lake Superior is already doing this successfully and is a great example to follow.
The MI Healthy Climate Plan, which is an important plan to get Michigan back on track to fighting the climate crisis, is vital. All communities must be included in this process, especially in rural areas. Both rural and urban communities should work together to create a better environment and a more equitable economy that allows everyone to thrive and be healthy. Let’s speak up together and make sure this plan is what we all deserve it to be.
Levi Teitel is the Rural Communications Coordinator for Progress Michigan, a non-profit advocacy and government watchdog group. He is currently based at Emmet County.
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