LANSING, Mich. — Michigan farmers, their allies in government and their trade groups all understand the value of agritourism – and they are putting money where their mouths are.

The Michigan Ag Council (MAC) and Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) have each put up $100,000 for the Pure Michigan Agriculture campaign, which is an arm of the state’s Pure Michigan campaign.

“The Pure Michigan Agriculture campaign is designed to better connect farmers to consumers and raise awareness of one of the state’s top industries, and also to highlight the farmers and farm families that make everything possible,” said Becky Cunningham, program coordinator at MAC.

The campaign, which started June 4, will run through September. There is already a radio commercial, which is running in five media markets, and there are billboard advertisements as well. Cunningham said there’s a social media component to the campaign, which means the use of Internet platforms such as Facebook.

The Pure Michigan Agriculture website is part of the campaign, too. It’s a landing page at the state’s official travel and tourism website. Although Cunningham wasn’t sure how many people are viewing the agriculture webpage, she said 8.7 million people clicked on the parent site www.michi gan.org in 2011.

“They’ll use their social media platform to link back to the agriculture page,” Cunningham said of the parent site.

The landing page features other MAC partners and members of the council itself. Partners in the campaign are allowed to use Pure Michigan logos at their discretion. There are different logos that call attention to different commodities, and the groups can use the logos for however long they wish.

“Every month they’re going to feature one of the Michigan Ag Council commodities, depending on which commodity month it is,” Cunningham said. “That member will be able to have a say in what the links are that month.”

She said the webpage, like the overall campaign, is to raise awareness of how vital agriculture is to the state. “For consumers, agriculture in Michigan is the place where more than 200 varieties of food are grown,” she added.

There will also be a Pure Michigan Farmer leg of the campaign. That will kick off at the Michigan Ag Expo breakfast on July 17, at 7 a.m.

“What’s in the works is that those at the breakfast will receive a Pure Michigan lapel pin and farmers will get a Pure Michigan window cling,” Cunningham stated.

There are many agritourism opportunities and events listed on the Pure Michigan Agriculture website – for example, the Breakfast on the Farm program, which has a link on the site. Eight of these events were scheduled for this year. Two have already taken place.

According to the website, the first Breakfast on the Farm event was in 2009 at a dairy farm in St. Johns. It was successful enough that three such events were held in 2010 and eight in 2011.

The Kalamazoo County breakfast was June 16 at the farm of Richard and Don Myers.

“There were roughly 2,500 people in attendance, and that’s just the people who checked in,” said Eva Beeker, 4-H program coordinator in St. Joseph County and a Breakfast on the Farm planning committee member.

“It was really well-attended. Most of the breakfasts are around that mark. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. It’s a great opportunity for people who don’t know a lot about agriculture to get an idea of what goes on on a farm.”

The Myers own a 700-cow dairy operation. The public had breakfast with Michigan-made products, went on a tour of the farm, watched cows being milked, saw the lagoon and recycling of manure, saw a demonstration by a hoof trimmer, listened to a veterinarian and children made butter.

Since 2009, nearly 23,000 children and adults have attended Breakfast on the Farm events throughout Michigan to learn where food comes from, according to the website. The events are free.

The remaining breakfasts will be at locations in Sanilac County, Delta County, Kent County, Isabella County, Osceola County and Allegan County. To find out more about these and other agritourism opportunities this summer, go to www.michigan.org and click on the “Michigan Agriculture” link.