ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MIStabenow promoting 'Grow it Here, Make it Here' initiative

(02/21/12) - Senator Debbie Stabenow is looking for ways to advance a new emerging manufacturing industry in the state.

She is promoting 'bio-based' manufacturing through her "Grow it Here, Make it Here" initiative.

Inside the Swedish Biogas North American Headquarters at Kettering University Tuesday, Stabenow laid out why it's important to support bio-based manufacturing in Michigan, that's manufacturers that turn agriculture goods like corn, soybean and sugar into products we use every day.

"Products that are greener, that are bio-degradable, that are grown in Michigan and then making the products in Michigan," Stabenow said.

Last fall, the senator introduced a tax credit for companies in the state that choose to invest in new facilities or purchase equipment to manufacture bio-based products.
 
Tuesday she announced three new initiatives, including strengthening the Bio-preferred Program by doubling the number of products that are certified and labeled, making it easier for consumers to purchase goods made out of agriculture materials.

She wants to spur the commercialization to accelerate the bio-based industry and to make sure every lab idea has a chance to succeed, and she wants to give bio-companies better loan options so they have the money available to research and create.

Stabenow says when we grow things here, and when we make things here, we create jobs here.

"It's very important to build on the strength of Michigan, we grow things here so that we can get off foreign oil, and we can have something that's bio-degradable and we can create jobs," she said.

Stabenow says she will join with President Obama and the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to call for a 50 percent increase in government purchases of new bio-based products.