Here’s some economic news to brighten your summer and provide a catalyst for green jobs that can’t be outsourced: Michigan leads the country in the production of many tasty fruits and vegetables, and the next few months are prime time to find them at your local farm markets and roadside stands.

For those who love fresh food, summer is high season in Michigan. Farmers’ markets, roadside vegetable stands and rural vistas of fertile fields inspire a sense of abundance and provide a chance to sample food the way it used to be—locally grown and rich with flavor. If the future of food doesn’t recapture some of that spirit, however, the air, water and other natural resources of the planet will be in growing jeopardy.

An older British woman once described how as a child she would savor the first strawberries picked in season. Nowadays, she said, they just don’t taste as good because you can buy them any time you want at the supermarket. What, besides nostalgia for a simpler and sweeter time, do we really pay for year-round strawberries? For starters, consider the embedded energy resources they represent.

About 570 students graduated from the Michigan State University College of Agriculture this year, but only 10% studied the actual production of food. As the farming population ages, fewer young people learn historical or even cutting-edge farming techniques. MSU’s student organic farm continues to marry that cutting-edge learning with traditional agricultural practices.

For Michiganders, summer means a chance to sample a wide variety of produce, much of it grown right here and available at roadside stands and farmers’ markets.

Here’s a roundup of some notable recent or pending actions on food policy in the world of policy-making, politics and research:

Michigan boasts some of the most productive agricultural soils in the world. The diversity of our farm production is second only to California, and farming contributes more than $60 billion each year to Michigan’s economy.

Huge factory farms, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), need to be more accountable to the environment and public health, contends a coalition including the Michigan Environmental Council, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan and many others.

Farmers, livestock producers and private forest owners manage more than 30% of Michigan’s landscape. Their decisions dramatically impact water quality, the fate of rare wildlife and even the pace of sprawl.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but at dinner time I’m a pretty lousy environmentalist. I still eat too high on the food chain (environmental-speak for red meat and other animal flesh); and I seldom organize my weekend around getting to our farmers’ market.

Editor’s note: Former MEC Policy Associate Kristin Brooks is now the coordinator of the Michigan Food Policy Council, established in 2005 by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. We asked our alumnus for thoughts on the Council’s report, released in the fall of 2006.