Conversations with Collaborators

Episode two of Conversations with Collaborators brings you the captivating and informative story behind the development of the MI Farm Co-op. This farmer led Cooperative was started in 2015 as a way for local farmers in Northwest Michigan to collaboratively provide local food to area schools. It has since grown to include a mulit-farm CSA box. We hear from two of the founding members Nic Welty and Jim Bardenhagen about the work that led to the cooperatives formation and how things have evolved over the years of operation. They go in-depth into challenges encountered and the creative solutions that were used. This story is one that any farmers thinking about starting a producer owned cooperative will definitely want to tune in for! 

In our very first Conversations with Collaborators Podcast episode we chat with Hannah Weber and Eric Kampe, two of the five "Owners" of Green Things Farm Collective. Eric and Hannah share with us the story behind three separate Ann Arbor local farm business joining forces to create a new collective enterprise. We learn about how existing relationships and trust were utilized to achieve new levels of collaboration and also about the legal structures that were created to ensure those relationships survived this transition.