MSU Research Helping Drive Michigan’s Dry Bean Industry

Photo by cottonbro studio

This story is part of a series highlighting the impact of MSU AgBioResearch’s work with Michigan agriculture and natural resources told through our stakeholders’ perspectives. Through partnerships with the State of Michigan and industries, MSU AgBioResearch is finding solutions to some of the most timely problems facing our state. To view the entire series, visit agbioresearch.msu.edu.

To view a podcast with AgBioResearch Director George Smith and Joe Cramer, executive director of the Michigan Bean Commission, discussing MSU research impact on the dry bean industry, click here.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — After more than four decades in the field, Joe Cramer knows a thing or two about Michigan agriculture and what makes it special. His 40-plus-year career has been dedicated to strengthening the state’s dry bean industry, first with a private business and now serving as executive director of the Michigan Bean Commission since 2012.

The commission is a grower-led organization that advocates on behalf of the industry, using farmer dollars to support research and marketing efforts.

While he was more focused on the end product in his private-sector position,

Cramer’s executive experience with the commission has given him an inside look at how partnerships are essential to getting dry beans from the field to the fork. Cramer said Michigan State University’s role in that collaboration has been eye-opening.

“I’m always fascinated every time I’m at MSU, and I learn something new,” Cramer said. “The staff is so smart and has so much capacity that we benefit from. Every time our growers put a dry bean seed in the ground, they may have bought that seed from a private-sector company, but I’m willing to bet those seeds have some tie to MSU. Whatever it is the growers are trying to eliminate in terms of a disease or gain with yield, there’s a green fingerprint from MSU on it.”

The vast majority of Michigan’s dry beans are grown in the Thumb region,

home to some of the state’s most fertile soils. A variety of crops are present in fields here, but dry beans hold a special place.

According to the Michigan Bean Commission, roughly 1,100 growers produce more than 500 million pounds of conventional and organic dry beans annually in Michigan, making it the second-leading producer of total dry beans in the country. The state is the No. 1 producer of organic beans in the U.S. and also ranks first for black beans, cranberry beans and small red beans.

MSU has a rich history with the dry bean industry through a multitude of research projects aimed at challenges such as diseases, insects, nutrient application and weeds. But most notable is a 100-plus-year breeding and genetics program supported by MSU AgBioResearch.

(The article also contains a Q&A with Greg Ackerman and Nathan Capps. Ackerman, who is a past chair of the Michigan Bean Commission, operates a farm in Vassar, Michigan. Capps is the quality director for Bush Brothers and Company, a family owned business founded in 1908 that sells an array of bean products across the U.S., including roughly 80% of the canned baked beans consumed throughout the country annually.)

Click here to read the full article.

Michigan State University AgBioResearch scientists discover dynamic solutions for food systems and the environment. More than 300 MSU faculty conduct leading-edge research on a variety of topics, from health and agriculture to natural resources. Originally formed in 1888 as the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, MSU AgBioResearch oversees numerous on-campus research facilities, as well as 15 outlying centers throughout Michigan. To learn more, visit agbioresearch.msu.edu.