M-21 AgTech Corridor hopes to attract new businesses to Mid-Michigan

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Everyday, as many as 36,000 vehicles drive up and down M-21 between Flint and Grand Rapids. That’s a lot of potential customers – which is why there is an effort to draw new businesses to the M-21 Corridor here in Mid-Michigan. The effort is being led by the M-21 AgTech Taskforce.

You can find all sorts of businesses if you drive M-21 in Clinton, Shiawassee, and Ionia counties. The Lansing Area Economic Partnership is working on drawing one specific type of company to the corridor – AgTech businesses.

“It brings awareness to the growth opportunities that we have along the corridor and it also supports family farms including the existing resources that we have by key businesses,” said Emma Bostwick.

Bostwick is Lansing Area Economic Partnership’s Tri-County Development Manager. She said the M-21 AgTech Corridor will help increase tax revenue and provide more access to goods and services needed to produce raw commodities.

“So AgroLiquid is pleased to have the opportunity to participate in that. We have the opportunity to provide meeting spaces, office spaces, on-farm research,” said Nikole Dunker of AgroLiquid.

Increasing economic activity along M-21 will benefit both the community and the state.

“Being a commodity-heavy state, this was more of how can we create a more strategic and advantageous initiative to already tap into those resources and create a larger system,” said Bostwick.

A larger system that could one day stretch across most of the state.

The M-21 AgTech Taskforce started back in 2019 but came to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

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