Working Families in Southwest Michigan Are Being Squeezed from Every Direction

Southwest Michigan sits at the heart of the nation's blueberry industry. Allegan, Berrien, Muskegon, Ottawa, and Van Buren counties make up the state's primary blueberry growing region, a landscape shaped by sandy glacial soils and high water tables that produce ideal conditions for the fruit. In one year alone, Michigan produced more than 84 million pounds of blueberries, supporting more than 6,600 jobs on a full-time equivalent basis. Those farms are part of a food and agriculture sector that the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) says contributes nearly $126 billion annually to the state's economy and supports more than 800,000 jobs.

But that sector is now losing the international customers it spent decades building. In 2024, Michigan set a state export record, shipping nearly $3 billion in food and agriculture products. Then the tariffs came. By the first half of 2025, the numbers had reversed sharply: Michigan wheat shipments fell 89%, fresh cherry exports declined 62%, and fresh apple exports fell 58% compared to the same period the year before. Canada, China, and other trading partners responded to U.S. tariffs with retaliatory duties as high as 140% on American agricultural goods, drying up the export markets that Southwest Michigan farms depend on to stay solvent.

MDARD Director Tim Boring has been direct about what this means in practical terms. "More and more foreign purchasers are just viewing the United States and Michigan products with a lot of uncertainty," he said — and warned that once buyers switch to suppliers in other countries, recapturing that business can take years, if it happens at all. For family farms in Van Buren and Allegan counties, that uncertainty isn't abstract. It shows up in the revenue projections that determine whether a multi-generational operation survives another season.

Working Families Are Falling Further Behind

Across Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren counties, nearly 29,000 working households earn too much to qualify for government assistance but not enough to cover rent, groceries, and a car payment. These are people with jobs — sometimes two — who are still coming up short every month. In Van Buren County alone, many residents fall below that basic-needs threshold.

Michiganders Deserve Better Than This

Southwest Michigan produces world-class blueberries, supports thousands of manufacturing jobs, and draws visitors to one of the most beautiful stretches of Great Lakes shoreline in the country. The region generated approximately $14.5 billion in gross regional product in 2025.

But productive doesn't mean protected. The families harvesting those blueberries, working those production floors, and running those small shops are being squeezed by forces well beyond their control — tariff policies that closed off export markets, trade disruptions that cost factory jobs, and a cost-of-living curve that keeps outrunning paychecks.