The Oakland County Farm Bureau joined ranks alongside students from the Bowers Farm School FFA Club last month to heighten awareness of National Agriculture Day and the county’s often overlooked farm sector.
Presenting at the March 16 meeting of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners was living local farm legend LC Scramlin, flanked by half a dozen Bowers Farm FFA students. Click here to enjoy Scramlin’s case for local agriculture, in his own eloquent words, beginning at the 30-minute mark.
Alongside their pro-farm message, the group presented the county leaders with swag baskets laden with locally produced farm products — and of course a fresh, new 2025 Michigan Farm Bureau Policy Book. As the codified voice of thousands of Farm Bureau members statewide, Farm Bureau policies represent the priorities of the state’s wildly diverse ag industry.
Farm Bureau is the largest agricultural organization in Oakland County, representing the interests of over 500 local farm families.
It wasn’t that long ago Oakland County was packed with traditional agriculture, including dairy farms, livestock production and row crops fields. And while it’s since become one of Michigan’s most developed and densely populated municipalities, Oakland is still home to plenty of agricultural enterprises.
It’s an exhaustive inventory, but among the high points are lavender and other herbs; annual and perennial flowers; dahlias; sunflowers; myriad fruits and vegetables; cider mills, wineries and breweries; aquaculture; apiary; greenhouses and nurseries; alpaca, llama and sheep fiber; equine; mushrooms; Christmas trees; sod and landscaping suppliers; golf course and athletic field turf management; and agritourism destinations including pumpkin patches, corn maze, u-picks and plenty of farm markets.
And they’re all operated by family farmers, many of them multigenerational.
The FFA members directed the commissioners’ attention to agriculture’s mission to provide stable access to high-quality everyday products, from the food on our tables to the clothes on our backs and fuel for our vehicles.
Their bottom line: Whether your food is farm-to-table or bought off the shelf of your local grocery store, consumers can count on farmers to deliver safe, nutritious and abundant food, all while protecting the environmental resources necessary for producing it.
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