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uh... my name is Tom Dudek
i'm with michigan state university extension
i've been with the extension
for thirty-plus years
and i can remember being here in the
early to mid-eighties
and uh...
there wasn't all this size to the operation those houses to the east didn't exist
there were a lot of fields here in field production
perennials
and they started out
with a product
this is what put Sawyer Nursery on the map the creeping phlox
pink purple white
they used to dig those out of the field and that's what
Bob and Shirley really started this business as and they became
known for that and probably were the largest creeping phlox grower in the
entire united states right here in Hudsonville Michigan
and evloved from that
to were this operation is today and creeping phlox are still part of that but they're not
the backbone of the operation
the containerized perennials you see on either side of us here are what they do
and where the money is in this business today
the MAEAP program started in about ninteen
ninety-nine
it is a partnership between state government
university
conservation groups and the ag industry
it is very very unique
over the past ten years the MAEAP program has continued to grow
its partnership and
its scope of work
we now have over fifty
different partners in the
MAEAP organization
we have over
ten-thousand
producers
involved
at some level
and we have close to a thousand verified or
pending verfied farms
without the farmers
will to be environmentally minded and without their result to implement
the practices
in the long-term management changes
we could never be successful
the leadership
the Sawyers have shown
should be commended
and to me stands as just one more example of our farmers committment
to our economy
and our environment
and our state
it's no easy task
to do that it's a lot of work it takes a lot of people
coming together to do that and to make a real reality here
it's voluntary program where producers are stepping up and saying they want
to do the right thing by this generation
and future generations
and they've joined that partnership they've joined this effort
to do the right thing
this recognizes Sawyer Nursery for being a
MAEAP verified farm
joining the ten thousand
other producers that have participated in the program and one thousand that have made it this far to be MAEAP
verified
thank you very much
for doing this we're sure you are going to continue in the future so thank you
The awards that have been given on behalf of the nursery and all our people here
we know no business works without good employees
and it's great to see everything come together in a program like this