A ribbon cutting is planned for next week to celebrate the completion of a hoop house at Lake Michigan College’s South Haven campus.
Campus Associate Dean Jeremy Burleson tells us a hoop house is like a greenhouse, only made out of lighter materials like plastic. LMC has been working with Michigan State University to set up the hoop house and expand agricultural programming. The idea is to grow agricultural options in the region.
“Especially as we see the climate change so much, a lot of times farmers are susceptible to what happens to the land and the agriculture with the climate,” Burleson said. “So, if we can provide them at least some sort of skills about having a controlled environment, kind of teach them the new types of strategies dealing with farming, then we were hoping that we could try to get more farmers around the area.”
Burleson says although LMC doesn’t have agricultural classes right now, the goal is to implement them, possibly by expanding on current science classes.
“A lot of it is just changing some of those classes, and we’re hoping to be able to offer agricultural certificates.”
Burleson says the 32 by 72 foot hoop house was just finished this week and MSU will own and operate it for the first five years. Then LMC will take over.
The ribbon cutting for the hoop house will be Friday, November 15 at 11 a.m. with the South Haven Area Chamber of Commerce on hand. You can find the hoop house right by the entrance to LMC’s South Haven campus. Burleson says if you drive by, you can’t miss it.
