FLEXIBLE FUNDING MODEL GRANT APPLICATION MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT FEBRUARY 2018

Project Summary ? Abstract RFA-FD-18-001The Flexible Funding Model - Infrastructure Development and Maintenance for State ManufacturedFood Regulatory Programs (FFM) 5 year grant opportunity focuses on the creation, development andmaintenance of long-term sustainable efforts at the state and local levels to improve capabilities inhuman and animal food regulatory programs.The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is the lead state agencyfor both food and feed safety with authority to oversee all the segments of the farm-to-fork continuum.The over-arching goal and vision in Michigan is to maintain a high quality regulatory food programand continue to grow and enhance its multi-disciplinary, multi-divisional integrated capacity torespond to food and feed issues within the agency, while improving the effective working relationshipswith the FDA-Detroit Office, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan's 45Local Health Departments, academia and industry stakeholders.Through the FFM project, Michigan's manufactured food regulatory program standards (MFRPS)program, Food Protection Task Force, and Rapid Response Team (RRT) program, along with specialprojects opportunities would become more cohesive. The grant opportunity would allow Michigan toimprove its capabilities to help advance a national integrated food safety system by continuing tobuild and maintain a transferable working model of food regulatory best practices along with theimplementation and integration of advanced rapid response capacities using the Incident CommandSystem (ICS) and the principles outlined in the RRT Best Practices Manual.