Michigan Food Innovation District
Janny MT Presentation
September 28, 2015
T.A. Forsberg, Inc. has been working in conjunction with
Michigan State University, Lansing Economic Area Partnership, the Lansing and
Mason Chambers of Commerce as well as Alaiedon Township and Meridian Township
to set up a Food Innovation District.
The Food Innovation District is working to help build a food,
agricultural, economic and marketing center to help promote Michigan Food Products
in the Lansing Area.
The Food Innovation District is located in Alaiedon
Township, just North of I-96 between Hulett and Hagadorn Roads.
Today, T.A. Forsberg, Inc. held a reception to welcome Janny
MTUS to the area. This is family-owned
French Company that is introducing the Janny MT fresh food storage bin to growers
in Michigan. Benoit Janny came from France to introduce the bins to the
audience of people from the organizations listed above as well as several local
growers and food processing companies.
These fresh produce storage bins are designed to create a
flexible controlled atmosphere that extends the shelf life of harvested fruits,
vegetables and cut flowers. By controlling the temperature, humidity and levels
of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air-tight bins, they are able to slow the
aging of the products inside of them.
While they require a cold storage atmosphere, because you simply place
the bins in existing cold storage units, there is no additional energy used to
store the products.
This provides a huge benefit to local farmers as they can
sell their fresh produce over a much longer shelf-life before they begin to
deteriorate. Thus, farmers face far less
pressure to offer price discounts on their produce before it becomes overly
ripe and less salable. This results in
enhanced revenue for the farmer as well more healthy fruits and vegetables
being consumed before they spoil.
Dr. David Spencer and Brent Forsberg told some of the
history of the MI Food Innovation District in Okemos and its cooperation with
Michigan State University. They stressed
how the Food Innovation District is a prime location with a lot of farming
activity in the area and great access to expressways for shipping
products.
Janny MT has assigned Lea Deberry, a post-graduate intern
with a background in sciences and agriengineering, to work on the project for seventeen months while they develop a market for their bins and begin to sell them in
Michigan.
All this will hopefully help the T.A. Forsberg, Inc. and the
MI Food Innovation District to bring investment and employment to the Lansing
Area!
