MSU Research Helping Drive Michigan’s Dry Bean Industry

By Cameron Rudolph

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.”