Three Dogs Seed Farm-Michigan

Saving Seeds for Food Sovereignty in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

In Northern Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Dani Fegan of Three Dogs Seed Farm is saving culturally important, climate-adapted seeds of foods, plants, and medicines to support her community’s food sovereignty and security.

A new farmer, she purchased her 20-acre Michigan seed-saving farm in 2019 with her husband Brian, about a mile and a half from her home. She grows plants for seed keeping on about three acres and has six acres of mixed maple, balsam poplar, and aspen forest on the property. This year, Michigan seed-saving farm Three Dogs Seed Farm was a recipient of a Brighter Futures Fund award of $5,000, which was sponsored by American Farmland Trust with generous support from Tillamook Dairy and other partners. Dani says the farm has already used the grant money to have a groundwater well drilled on the property. The new well has a solar-powered pump, so there are no long-term electricity costs. When the farm gets to those extremely arid situations again, that water is available. The farm can also wash equipment and give produce an initial rinse.

The farm expects the well to save time, money, and fuel, and to make it more resilient to changes in precipitation over time.