Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development Overview

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) houses four bureaus and is comprised of ten divisions that use a customer-driven, solution-oriented approach to cultivate and expand new economic opportunities for the food and agricultural sector; safeguard the public’s food supply; inspect and enforce sound animal health practices; control and eradicate plant pests and diseases threatening nearly $126 billion food and agriculture system; preserve the environment by which the farming community makes their living and feeds consumers; and protect consumers by enforcing laws relating to weights and measures. Learn more about our bureaus.

Commissions and Commodity Groups

The Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development recommends and determines policy on food, agricultural, and rural development issues.

MDARD oversees additional boards and commissions.

MDARD has legal, fiscal and program oversight responsibility for 15 legislatively established commodity boards that have producer check-offs or producer assessments. The Director is a non-voting member of these entities, which are administratively housed within the Department as component units of state government, but they are independent, and their producer funded budgets are not part of the state appropriations process. Oversight responsibility includes:

• Ensuring the Michigan Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act are being followed at the check-off boards.
• Ensuring funds are being used according to industry adopted programs and in compliance with State of Michigan statutory financial and generally accepted accounting standards.
• Reviewing all commodity audits and providing a written review of the audits provided to ensure financial soundness and compliance with generally accepted accounting standards.