gbThis story is part of a series highlighting the impact of MSU AgBioResearch’s work with Michigan agriculture and natural resources told through our stakeholders’ perspectives. Through partnerships with the State of Michigan and industries, MSU AgBioResearch is finding solutions to some of the most timely problems facing our state. To view the entire series, visit agbioresearch.msu.edu.
To view a podcast with AgBioResearch Director George Smith and Joe Cramer, executive director of the Michigan Bean Commission, discussing MSU research impact on the dry bean industry, go to
https://tinyurl.com/MSU-Agbio-Dry-Bean
EAST LANSING, Mich. — 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.”
The vast majority of Michigan’s dry beans are grown in the Thumb region, home to some of the state’s most fertile soils. A variety of crops are present in fields here, but dry beans hold a special place.
According to the Michigan Bean Commission, roughly 1,100 growers produce more than 500 million pounds of conventional and organic dry beans annually in Michigan, making it the second-leading producer of total dry beans in the country. The state is the No. 1 producer of organic beans in the U.S. and also ranks first for black beans, cranberry beans and small red beans.
MSU has a rich history with the dry bean industry through a multitude of research projects aimed at challenges such as diseases, insects, nutrient application and weeds. But most notable is a 100-plus-year breeding and genetics program supported by MSU AgBioResearch.
For more than 40 years, the program was led by Dr. Jim Kelly, whose efforts yielded nearly 50 varieties of dry beans, many of which are grown throughout the world today. The laboratory is now led by Dr. Valerio Hoyos-Villegas, who is looking to build on that success.
Cramer said the program has been an integral part of keeping Michigan at the forefront of the industry globally.
“The dry bean breeding program at MSU has been so instrumental for our industry,” he said. “For instance, there’s a small red bean variety called Viper. I would say that over 99% of that variety grown today has its roots in East Lansing. It’s had a tremendous impact on the bottom line of our growers for domestic and international markets. It’s a product of great quality that consumers are enjoying, and that’s just one example.
Partnerships are the crux of what makes this research possible, including two initiatives led by MSU, the Michigan Plant Coalition, and the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture and Rural Development.
For 27 years, Project GREEEN has helped growers across the Michigan plant agriculture spectrum address urgent and emerging issues. The Agricultural Resiliency Program was created in 2024 to examine long-term challenges related to water and extreme weather.
“Project GREEEN is a great example of how we’re able to stretch dollars to benefit our growers,” Cramer said. “If you look at the dry bean industry and the product we put on the shelf, we think it’s the healthiest, most nutrient-packed, shelf-stable product, and it’s gaining more consumers all the time. The quality our growers produce and the yield they benefit from, it’s all a product of Project GREEEN and the research we can’t afford to support on our own. We so appreciate the Michigan Legislature and the work that was done 27 years ago to create the program, as well as the work that continues to be done to support it.
“With the Agricultural Resiliency Program, when you bring growers into discussions, it seems so common sense to them to think about longer-term things like improving soil health and holding nutrients in the soil. Farmers have a desire to think long term, and this program is an opportunity to encourage more of that, further identifying additional ways they can protect their futures and their investments.”
Cramer said it’s vital that legislators and funding agencies understand how support is used to prop up agriculture and the larger economy.
“Quality research is expensive, and we don’t have a large budget at the Michigan Bean Commission,” he said. “When you put those two things together, we can’t get a lot done on our own. Without support from the State of Michigan or federal dollars, we don’t get these research programs off the ground. All of those mechanisms that help us stretch our grower dollars go away, and our research would come to a halt. Every time we get the opportunity, we’re thanking lawmakers at the state and federal levels for that support and trying hard to express how necessary the funding truly is to our industry and other agricultural industries.
“In Michigan, about every third row of dry beans is exported, so we can measure our economic impact domestically and internationally. Our lawmakers like to hear about that kind of thing and need to hear about it.”
Greg Ackerman and Nathan Capps have seen the fruits of MSU dry bean research firsthand. Ackerman, who is a past chair of the Michigan Bean Commission, operates a farm in Vassar, Michigan. Capps is the quality director for Bush Brothers and Company, a family owned business founded in 1908 that sells an array of bean products across the U.S., including roughly 80% of the canned baked beans consumed throughout the country annually.
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