PETERSBURG, Mich. — Despite massive changes the agricultural industry has undergone in recent years, Michigan and Ohio continue to have many families who withstand economic pressures to have their land sold and developed into big-box shopping centers, residential subdivisions, or be placed into the hands of major corporate agriculture.
Their perseverance has continued in the modern era of climate change, with all of the herky-jerky, drought-today and flood-tomorrow weather patterns that have made their farming operations even more difficult.
One such family-owned farm that’s still weathering tough times is the Stanger Farm off McCarty Road about a mile north of Petersburg in Monroe County.
This year, it became part of the Michigan Centennial Farm Program, which recognizes Michigan working farms of 10 acres or more that have been in the same family for at least 100 years.
In Michigan alone, 6,458 centennial farms and 436 sesquicentennial farms have been certified since the program’s inception in 1948. Once certified, they become part of the Michigan Centennial Farm Association .