PERSPECTIVES ON REGIONAL AND ENTERPRISE MARGINALITY - DAIRYING IN MICHIGAN NORTH COUNTRY

Dairy farmers in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, an economically marginal rural region, are encumbered by contextual constraints that are not si milarly faced by their downstate counterparts. However, this does not mean that they are any less ambitious or less efficient in dealing wit h the resources available to them. indeed, dairying and similar small- scale economic enterprises in this and other marginal contexts may be quite competitive and sustainable if appropriate sociopolitical suppor ts are instituted and, in the case of dairying, if marketing orders an d regulatory policies are formulated and implemented in light of their impact upon the economic growth and viability of the wider region. To explore this issue, we consider the situations, basic characteristics , and restructuring trends over time of dairy farms in three upstate l ocalities as compared with that of a downstate dairy farming community .