Conservation and Sustainable Food Growing in Michigan

Our guest is Daniel Moilanen, a Fenton-area native now living in Flint, and the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts (MACD).

Under Dan’s leadership, Michigan’s soil conservation districts are bringing conservation-minded farmers together to modernize agricultural practices—reducing nutrient runoff, protecting wetlands, and addressing the toxic algal blooms threatening the Great Lakes, especially Lake Erie.

Modern Farming, Healthier Water

A core focus of this work is precision agriculture—using advanced technology to monitor and optimize crop production in real time. Examples include:

• GPS-guided machinery, which allows farmers to precisely apply fertilizers and pesticides, reducing over-application and runoff
• Cover crops and conservation tillage, improving soil health while reducing erosion
• Nutrient management plans, tailored to specific crops and soil types to minimize excess nutrients entering waterways

Together, these practices support both environmental protection and the long-term economic viability of Michigan agriculture.

Michigan is the second-largest producer of agricultural commodities in the United States, yet outdated farming methods threaten to deplete its rich soil base within the next 60 years. Dan joins us to discuss how conservation districts are working to prevent that outcome—protecting water resources while sustaining farming communities.

Background and Community Leadership

Dan is a graduate of Albion College and was recently selected by the Flint-Genesee Chamber of Commerce as one of its 40 Under 40 distinguished young community leaders.

His background includes small-business ownership, civic engagement, and political leadership. He is the founder and former owner of Vehicle City Tacos, a popular downtown Flint food truck, and has served as a leader of the Genesee County Democratic Party and the Genesee County Young Democrats.

Outside of policy and conservation work, Dan continues his long-standing interest in music, performing with a ska-punk band in the Flint area.

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Transcript

Podcast Intro

Arthur Busch, Host 0:00

Welcome. You are listening to Radio Free Flint, hosted by Arthur Busch. Today, our podcast guest is Daniel Moylanen, a Flinton area native now living in Flint. Dan is a graduate of Albion College. Recently, the Flint Genesee Chamber of Commerce selected him as one of 40 under 40 distinguished young community leaders. Dan has a wealth of experience in small business ownership, community service, and political engagement. He is the founder and former owner of Vehicle City Tacos, a popular downtown Flint food truck. Dan is with us to talk about the Michigan environmental issues like soil conservation, better and less harmful agricultural practices that help keep our water resources and wetlands free of harmful pollutants. The conservation districts in Michigan have helped promote urban hoop farming in Flint and Detroit. Dan is currently the executive director of the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts. His leadership in this organization brings conservation-minded farmers together to reduce toxic algal blooms in the Great Lakes by encouraging environmentally sound agricultural techniques. In recent years, Dan has continued his interest in music by performing with a ska, punk, and rock band in the Flint area. We are sure you'll find our guests fun and interesting, and will learn about how important it is to protect our food and water resources through conservation. Welcome, Dan. Yeah, thank you, Arthur. Happy to be here. So I understand one of your claims to fame is that you're a former punk rocker.

Dan Moilean 1:37

Well, former and current, I suppose. I grew up in Lake Fenton, but spent my weekends in downtown Flint hanging out at the Flint Local 432, which is, you know, in all ages music venue that's been in various locations since the mid-1980s. And yeah, it was really where I found my community and really where I got connected to the city. And music is my first passion, and then conservation and policy are sort of my second and third. But yeah, music has always been a really huge part of my life. What's the name of the band? We're called the write-ups. It's funny because my bandmates, we have two executive directors. We have a PhD who's a local academic, a really well-accomplished artist, and an aspiring chef. So we thought, well, at this point in our 30s, starting a band, we're probably gonna get in trouble with work at some point. So the write-ups was what we settled on. So we're more of like a second wave style ska band, but definitely have some punk elements.

Arthur Busch, Host 2:26

So what would you call this genre that you play?

Dan Moilean 2:28

Call it ska or ska punk.

Arthur Busch, Host 2:30

Now you attended a very good school, which many of Flint's leaders over generations have attended. That's Albion College. Correct. Yep. What was your major there?

Dan Moilean 2:40

I double majored in political science and philosophy, and I was a member of the Ford Institute there for public policy and service. So I've always been a little bit of a policy nerd.

Vehicle City Tacos

Arthur Busch, Host 2:50

Well, I don't know if you know this, you may, but there are many alumni from that school who served on the bench in Genesee County over the years. Judge Jeffrey Nethercutt, Duncan Beagle, just to name a couple. It's a school with a fine reputation producing some of the best professionals who have come back to the community and actually want to live here and spend their careers in the front area. Another one of your claims to fame, guess what it is?

Speaker 1 3:12

I'm guessing it's gonna probably be Vehicle City Tacos.

Arthur Busch, Host 3:14

Exactly. It caught my attention because I do like tacos. So tell us about the taco business.

Dan Moilean 3:21

Yeah. Well, back in 2014, at the time I was working for Resource Genesee, which is now a defunct nonprofit. They folded shortly after I left. It was basically that was my day job, and on the weekends I was the club manager for the Flint Local 432. And I had heard about an RFP that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation was offering for food truck concepts. So one of my good friends was a chef, and we put our heads together and filled out a proposal on a whim. I'm a natural procrastinator. We finished it the night before and submitted it, and sure enough, they ended up awarding us $10,000 in startup funds. So ended up securing the rest of the funding, and we bought a truck, and we were really the first food truck to operate in downtown Flint, and we were kind of trailblazing. I've had a little bit of pushback from some of the business owners and key holders downtown, and we had a little bit of pushback from some other folks City Hall, but we were able to essentially get folks to understand what the vision was and what we could do because it was really mostly about placemaking. That was always my whole entire point was that I used to live in Austin, Texas for a little while for a few years when I worked for Apple. And when I was down there, I realized food trucks were everywhere. I knew that Flint was trying to become more of a college town in that economy. So I always thought and kept in the back of my head, hey, if I ever go back to Flint, that would be a really good business to run. And sure enough, the opportunity presented itself. So I went into the taco business. Naturally, I chose tacos because no one really does tacos up here in the same way that you get down there in Texas. So that was what I modeled the whole business off of was doing tacos that were a little bit more interesting and not just the usual just ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a tortilla. It ended up taking off, and people really loved it. So I did it for about four years. A lot of really cool experiences, a lot of really cool stories. I could probably spend a whole hour talking about some of the things that we're doing.

Being Part of Downtown Flint's Revitalization

Arthur Busch, Host 5:10

That's the next interview with your partner. Sure. Yeah. Actually, I'd like to interview the band. Oh, yeah. If you get a few tunes on here for some of the old people that are listening to this. Oh, for sure. We love that. You're really part of a trend in Flint, which is to bring in suburban people. I interviewed Phil Haggerman some time ago, and he said his goal was to get the people from the Owl County to come back downtown to Flint, and that's obviously what you've done. Phil, by the way, is also from Fenton. So you're object number one, exha exhibit number one of his plan coming to life. Who funded that taco truck?

Dan Moilean 5:46

So I took out series of loans to buy everything myself. But you said you got a $10,000 grant. I didn't. It was from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Yeah. Okay. But I did have to provide a hundred percent match on it. I had to buy the truck, and then they gave us the check for startup funds for other ingredients and other things for inventory. And I also won a couple pitch contests too. There was one, it was the Michigan Social Business Fellowship competition, and we ended up getting about $4,000 in startup funds from if I recall correctly.

Arthur Busch, Host 6:16

Cool. So you've lived in Flint your whole life, I take it?

Dan Moilean 6:19

So I have lived now as a resident here in the city for about 10 years. But like I said, I grew up in Lake Hunton in particular and went to Linden High School. My mom was the school social worker at the middle school for 20, 25 years or so. But like I said, I always spent my weekends downtown. And back in the late 90s and early 2000s, it was really just the punks kind of keeping the lights on. You know, all the lawyers and politicians would clear out at 5 p.m. And it was just tumbleweeds and swinging traffic lights. Back then it was really just the local and a few dive bars here and there that were open. And it was always where I found my community and other people that actually liked the same music and liked the same things. And Lyndon and Lake Fenton were schools that I I don't know. I had friends there, but it was really in Flint where I found people that were more like me and liked the same thing.

Arthur Busch, Host 7:03

Now, somehow you ended up you were working for a resource Flint, and I can't remember what that agency's original name was.

Dan Moilean 7:10

Resource Genesee, if I recall, it was before I came on board when it was a different name, but they were focused on basically human services issues. At that time, we housed the volunteer center for Genesee County, and that was the department that I worked in. Specifically, I worked with folks that were low-income on cash assistance through Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. So we basically helped them fulfill their volunteer component of the program in order to get their benefits.

Arthur Busch, Host 7:35

You've also been named by the Flint Genesee Chamber of Commerce as one of 40 under 40, which means essentially that list over the years has met that these are emerging leaders in our community. With that honor comes some expectation.

Dan Moilean 7:50

Hopefully I can live up to everyone's expectations.

Arthur Busch, Host 7:52

You've not lost interest in the punk band yet, but your interests have migrated in other areas. Tell us about that.

Dan Moilean 7:59

I decided to get involved with the Genesee County Democratic Party. That led me down another career path back into the policy realm. So I worked on a few after I kind of hit my burnout point with the taco truck due to some mechanical challenges and other issues with it and just stress of managing a food truck business. I decided I really needed to make a change. I felt like owning a food truck I was part of the problem as opposed to part of the solution when it comes to the environment. So both actually. When I got involved with the Dems again, I restarted our Genesee County Young Dems chapter. It had kind of gone inactive once some of the former members had aged out. You can technically only be a young Dem until 36 years old. So I picked up the mantle, and even though I was getting close to that 36 age, I felt I could still try to get it started and make it more of a loose social organization. Once Dominique Clemens, who's now our chair of our county commission, once he became involved, he really helped steer us in a new direction, got us active as a political action committee into where we've actually done some fundraising and endorsement of candidates, as well as supporting young leaders who are interested in running for office.

How Dan Got Involved in Soil Conservation

Arthur Busch, Host 9:11

Dan, eventually you became involved in issues involving agriculture and soil conservation in Genesee County.

Dan Moilean 9:18

Yeah, so in 2019, one of my good friends works for Genesee Conservation District as our produce safety technician. And she reached out to me and said, Hey, our board of directors is gonna have a vacancy. You should consider running. And at the time, I really thought, oh wow, I don't really know much what what is a conservation district. Oh, I have to run for office for it. I I was a little I was interested because I've always had a lifelong passion for conservation.

Arthur Busch, Host 9:45

The reputation of the soil conservation district in Genesee County is a bunch of old guy farmers that sort of dominate it and they keep quiet because they don't get involved too much in politics. They resist most every modern way of farming that we tried to introduce when I was on the county board.

Dan Moilean 10:02

You'd be shocked to hear, too, that that that's sort of a commonality on district board throughout the entire state historically.

Arthur Busch, Host 10:08

Yeah, good Christmas parties.

Dan Moilean 10:10

Yeah, so my friend Micah, she said, hey, you should consider joining our board. You've got an act for policy. And so I did it on a whim, and sure enough, I was elected. So that was really my first introduction into the conservation world formally. Based on conversations with our district admin and other directors, they really encouraged me to get involved with our statewide association, the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts, who have a legislative work group that meets on a regular basis to discuss legislative advocacy policy. So that was where I first got involved then, because at the time, professionally, I was working as a legislative aide for State Representative John Cherry.

Arthur Busch, Host 10:49

Right place to start.

All About Conservation Districts

Dan Moilean 10:51

It was great. I came in, I felt like I could do a lot knowing how the legislature operated to really help form that legislative strategy for a Michigan's conservation districts.

Arthur Busch, Host 11:54

I'm sure most people in Genesee County have no clue what the Genesee County Soil Conservation District does, what its goals are, or anything like that, or any program or advocacy or anything like this.

Dan Moilean 12:07

Every county in America is covered by a conservation, and they are a local unit of government that functions sort of in the way of an intermediate school district or something functions. They were created in the 1930s in response to the dust bowl. The idea was that the farmers in the Great Plains in particular were tilling the hell out of their land, and they were basically just decimating the overall health of the soil. A huge drought hit, and that drought then basically turned all of these fields into dust. And farmers lost billions of dollars in today's dollars worth of assets and capital. So it was a national crisis. It wasn't until the clouds of dust were actually showing up on Capitol Hill in DC to where Congress felt that they needed to act. So they created the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, which is now today the Natural Resource Conservation Service through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. So they are sort of our federal partners. There needed to be more because farmers tend to be pretty skeptical people. They don't tend to trust the federal government or state government coming onto their land. They realized that there needed to be a local component to help implement conservation programming. We started in the early 1940s. I want to say Genesee started in last year, would have been our 75th anniversaries. Yeah, early 1940s was when our chapter was formed here. Initially, we started as soil conservation districts. That was the main focus, but we do more now. And so we've dropped the soil prefix and we're just conservation districts because we're doing work in water quality, in forest quality, in habitat restoration, in dune restoration. So we do a lot of other areas outside of just soil conservation now.

Soil: Health, Issues & Conservation

Arthur Busch, Host 13:43

Most people, when they think of Genesee County, they think of General Motors and they think of it as an industrial hub. But really, Genesee County has a lot of agricultural land.

Dan Moilean 13:52

Absolutely. So our district, we work one-on-one with those farmers through the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program or MEAP. Our district employees will help farmers apply for federal programming, and then our district employees and engineers will actually design the plans and whatnot that are then implemented and paid for using farm bill dollars from the federal government.

Arthur Busch, Host 14:14

So Michigan's pretty fortunate. We have Senator Debbie Stavenau, who's been chairman of the Agriculture Club of the United States Senate.

Dan Moilean 14:20

She's been a huge champion for farmers and for conservation programming across the board. Michigan gets millions of dollars from the federal government through the Farm Bill program to implement conservation practices.

Arthur Busch, Host 14:32

And that money flows to Genesee County as well.

Dan Moilean 14:35

Yeah, honestly, the Art Conservation District brings in millions of dollars from the federal government into Genesee County.

Arthur Busch, Host 14:40

It's going to be about a month or so, or maybe even sooner, that people will be driving up north to see the colors and to see, you know, go deer hunting, go see their relatives at Thanksgiving, and then they're going to see this big cloud of dust going across the roads, M55, M33, I don't know about M72. I don't get over that way very often. But in the coastal plain along Lake Huron, it's not uncommon to see these big clouds of dust. And sometimes they make visibility, you know, impair visibility and so on. I always wondered if you're going up and down I-75, why aren't people riled up about this? And what does it mean when we see that cloud of dust?

Dan Moilean 15:24

Most folks don't understand where their food comes from, period. And I think that is part of the problem. You know, we've had multiple generations of folks that have grown up just with the invention of the supermarket. We show up there, the food's there, we don't have any thought about it. And because of that, we're very removed from the processes that are required to create and grow our food. So folks aren't more riled up because they think of soil as an infinite resource, that it just goes all the way down to the earth's mantle and we're good, and that's it. But the reality is that topsoil is a finite resource. There was a study that was released last year, the year before, from University of Massachusetts and Amherst that said that in the Midwest, we've gone through well over a third of our total topsoil. So they're predicting we have maybe 60 some odd harvests left at current status quo practices of which would be standards of tillage and herbicide pesticide applications. And, you know, there's some other practices that we promote too that help prevent soil erosion. This is a major issue that a lot of folks don't really think about. The implications of it are really pretty serious. Michigan is the second largest producer of produce in the country outside of California. And we have one of the most diverse collections of crops grown throughout the state as well. Given the future of climate change and what things are going to look like throughout our country, especially in the Southwest, it's likely that Michigan will become the largest producer based on conditions that we're looking at. So conservation is more important than it's even going back to the Dust Bowl, soil conservation is even more critical now than it was at that point. Again, it's something a lot of folks don't really think about.

Arthur Busch, Host 16:56

Genesee County, going back at least the mid to late 80s, there were many farmers that began a practice called no-till farming. Tell us what that is.

Dan Moilean 17:06

So no-till farming is an approach to farming where there is as little disturbance to the soil as possible. Sometimes there's other equipment that folks can use, like they call no-till drills or strip tillers, which are minimal tillage. The idea is that rather than breaking up all of the soil and mixing all the soil, which is what a lot of people think that is one of the best approaches to it, it leaves it where it is to allow cover crops and other plants to maintain their root structure. Without getting too much into the science of it, because you know, I am I am not a scientist, so everything I've learned is adjacent to scientists that have explained these things to me. And but the root systems basically will create rhizomes and other clusters of nitrogen. So it actually is more beneficial to the overall soil health. Now, what is soil health? Soil health is an overall composition of soil as an ecosystem. Soil is a micro universe of microbes and other microorganisms that essentially make it up. The more biodiverse that soil is, the overall healthier it is with nitrogen and nutrients there in the soil.

Arthur Busch, Host 18:07

What impact do you think urban farming will have in the future? If Michigan's got such great soil, a lot of this land is being reclaimed in the Flint area, particularly in Detroit and other places. Do you see a role for that in the future?

Water: Health, Issues & Conservation

Dan Moilean 18:20

Absolutely. So a lot of our conventional farmers now who farm really large acreage, they tend to grow corn and soy almost exclusively because that's where the money is. That's where they're going to make the most return on their time. That's how they've built out their equipment. That's how they've built out their entire business operation. So many farmers are farming primarily corn and soy, and that's how they've built out their business. Expecting them to change things over to start producing vegetables and produce is a pretty tall order at this point. To me, I see urban farming systems as being a question of stabilizing our overall food system as well as reducing the overall amount of carbon that is emitted through production and transportation of produce. Again, going back to the supermarket concept, folks don't understand where their food comes from. And we have this expectation that we should always be able to eat tomatoes year-round, we should always be able to eat oranges year round and have these things that are really only a privilege that has been allowed us by globalization of production and shipping. Most of produce is grown in either California or Mexico or South America in the off season. To me, it's a question of how we can reduce the carbon by reducing the distance it has to travel to get from farm to market table.

Arthur Busch, Host 19:36

What you're trying to do, but also is to work on water quality improvement. And I understand that the government now is seeking to reduce the amount of phosphorus that's going into our watersheds. Talk to us about that. Tell us what we need to know about that.

Labor Shortages & Other Looming Crises of Michigan's Agricultural Industry

Dan Moilean 19:53

Sure. Specifically, the non-point source issue is what's referred to as non-point source pollution, is a again a product of farmers getting away from the conservation practices that were adopted in the 40s and 50s and getting back into pre-conservation practices in terms of heavy tillage. And back in the 30s and 40s, riperion buffer strips were planted, which are strips of shrubs and trees that are between fields to help cut down on wind intensity, as well as harvestable buffer strips, which are there's drainage ditches that are at the edge of most fields. And when it rains, that water will run off into those drainage ditches, which then will typically run off into river streams and other water systems as part of a larger watershed. My organization, the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts, is partnering with the Herb Family Foundation based out of Detroit, and they're really dedicated to improving water quality in the Western Lake Erie Basin specifically. As part of our grant process, we're actually at the end of a three year grant cycle, but we have a farmer led group, which is an entirely organized by farmer. Leaders down in Monroe, Lenaway, Washtenaw County, Hillsdale, and Jackson County as well. The idea is that farmers are going to know what other farmers need or want and understand what's going to help get to them when it comes to conservation, implementing those practices. We've built out a network of conservation-minded farmers down there in the basin that we do a series of events and shop talks to help uh educate and inform folks about the benefits of adopting no-till cover cropping, harvestable buffer strips, and other conservation practices into their operations.

Arthur Busch, Host 21:23

Lake Erie has had horrific pollution, which experts say is a direct result of agribusiness and the poor practices that you've described. The runoffs of these pollutants into Lake Erie have impaired the use of water in that lake, particularly by other interests such as sportsmen, recreational users, and so on.

Speaker 1 21:43

But it's more than that, too, in the fact that the algal blooms produce microcystins which are neurotoxins. And this is a serious issue that could very well lead to large public health problems. And obviously, living in Flint, we're very sensitive to the issues of water quality. It's something that farmers just have to take a better approach if they're not doing the right thing. They've got to understand that just spraying manure without any control or variable application or spraying fertilizer everywhere is not the approach we need to take, especially if we're not cover cropping and adopting no-till.

Dan Moilean 22:12

So

Arthur Busch, Host 22:12

one of the things that I found of interest in preparation for this podcast was the average age of the farmer in Michigan, I guess, is 65 years old.

Dan Moilean 22:22

Correct.

Arthur Busch, Host 22:22

What's that mean for Michigan?

Dan Moilean 22:24

It means we have another crisis looming. We already have a labor shortage, right? As a result of the pandemic, and you see now hiring signs everywhere. And without farmers and more young people going into agriculture, we're gonna have a serious issue with availability of resources and commodities. And this could be partially due to a lot of different factors. Part of it is also the ability to purchase land and access to capital. It is difficult as a new farmer to buy land, to get started, to get the resources you need to start an operation, killer, but it is a looming crisis that, again, no one's really talking about. We're not talking about the issue of soil conservation, we're not talking about farmers aging out. These are gonna be some serious issues for Michigan long term. The conservation district system is something that is such an effective delivery system for delivering conservation. 72% of all land in Michigan is privately owned. If you don't have conservation districts that are active and robustly funded by the state and other sources, then you're gonna see fewer farm bill programs delivered on this land and you're gonna see less conservation occurring.

Arthur Busch, Host 23:26

One of the things I read from your organization was that only 30% of the farmers engage in no-till farming.

Public Knowledge of Watersheds

Dan Moilean 23:32

Approximately. We're still trying to gather the data on it, so it's kind of a loose number. It's not the majority, it's certainly an exception to the rule who are engaged. I would say more farmers are cover cropping in general, which is good. Cover cropping is a great practice that honestly long term can reduce the cost of fertilizer and overall cost of inputs and can increase the yield that farmers will have, especially once that health of the soil recovers. A lot of the programs that we do at the Genesee Conservation District in particular pertain to things like the Michigan High Tunnel Initiative, which was a push through our partners at the federal level, NRCS, to basically produce high tunnels and hoop houses all through Genesee County. So using dollars from the federal equip program, which is a program that helps farmers with the costs of investing in new equipment for conservation practices. They can also use it for cover cropping and other things. But we were one of two counties in Michigan to actually participate and take advantage of the high tunnel initiative. The other one was Wayne County. As a result, there have been a ton of new hoop houses throughout the city of Flint, and urban agriculture has really been a huge focus and a shift for the work that we're doing in terms of providing that technical assistance to those folks that want to start growing.

Arthur Busch, Host 24:38

But one of the things that always concerned me was the fact that people have such little base knowledge about how important a watershed is absolutely and how it actually works to clean drinking water. Have you been involved in any programs that educate the public and especially youngsters, like in elementary school and junior high school, to understand why you don't want to fill in the swamp or the wetlands or why you don't want to, you know, pour your laundry detergent into your lake or river?

What It Means to Be a Flintstone

Dan Moilean 25:06

Absolutely. Genesee Conservation District partners with the Genesee County Drain Commission, and we do an educational program in elementary schools throughout the county to help teach them about drains in particular. We'll do stencil projects too to indicate that the drains actually drain into the river to help raise awareness physically there on the spot. But also we're in schools helping to educate kids on these issues because even your lawn clippings, if you're not bagging your lawn clippings and those are just going out into the street, it's a lot of heavy greens that are rich in nitrogen that go into our water systems. Or if you're fertilizing your lawn, which a lot of people do that, but I could probably spend a whole hour talking about lawns too. To the next podcast. Yeah, sure. We'll talk about tacos and lawns. I'm interested in a punk man. You bet. So it's something that people don't think about. Is you know, those grass clippings do contribute to nitrogen levels in the water, and and storm drains do drain into water systems and into lakes and to rivers, and that nitrogen and phosphorus is exactly what uh algae likes to grow and thrive. So, but again, the neurotoxins that are released, the microcystins from algal blooms, is is a really serious issue. It's a neurotoxin in the same way that leads a neurotoxin and that it does permanent damage to people.

Arthur Busch, Host 26:15

Here in Michigan, we have a lot of water resources. We are stewards of our land, and we have a sacred obligation to watch our land and our water for future generations. I would like to thank you for spending some time with me, Daniel. I have one last question. You're from Linden and Fenton, and you're part of the Flint community. Does that make you a Flintstone?

What's Up Next for Dan's Punk Band The Write-Ups

Dan Moilean 26:38

I think so at this point. I've lived here for at least 10 years, my house in the Grand Travers neighborhood. So I've always identified more with Flint than anywhere else. What do you think a Flintstone is? What does it mean? Flint is such an interesting place. I've traveled quite a bit and I've been all around the world and all around the country, and I've been hard-pressed to find a place where the people are more down-to-earth and realistic than Flint. It takes a lot to live here sometimes. It comes with other challenges and trade-offs, and that's not for everyone. And but there's a deep pride among a lot of people who live here and who have formed their identity around this community. And to me, that's what it is. It's it's it's a flint stone. It's like kind of a harder person, I feel like, than if you say choose to live in the suburbs and sort of away from the beating pulse of this community.

Arthur Busch, Host 27:23

You know, you're a loquacious fella, you're very good with words. Let me boil it down. Can you describe Flint and its character in one word?

Dan Moilean 27:32

Resilient. I think resilient.

Arthur Busch, Host 27:34

Very good. I'll take

State of MI Archivist 27:35

that. I want to know what your next project is with your punk man.

Dan Moilean 27:39

We have about a full set written now with this of full songs and lyrics. We're probably booking some shows this fall, looking at maybe November, probably book our first show. Probably in Flint. You know, I've got some goals. I'd love to go, I go to a punk festival out in Montreal every year called Pooza Fest. You know, the organizer there, I'd love to go play that. And this October, I'm gonna be going down to Gainesville, Florida for the Fest, which is the really big one, and hopefully that'll be on our agenda at some point.

Arthur Busch, Host 28:01

Do you sing about the environment in your songs?

Dan Moilean 28:04

I do actually. One song actually is about water, and another song is about capitalism in general and its impact on the environment.

Arthur Busch, Host 28:12

Have you wrote a song about Flint yet? Actually, yeah.

Dan Moilean 28:15

It's a song about Operation Arrowhead, which is the recent effort by the Gensey County Sheriff to increase presence in downtown Flint of deputies. And there have been a lot of issues of white deputies basically harassing people of color who are just existing downtown.

Arthur Busch, Host 28:31

So we're gonna end the show with that song. What's the name of that song?

Dan Moilean 28:35

So it's not recorded yet, but it's called Operation Arrowhead.

Arthur Busch, Host 28:38

Thanks for joining me on Radio Free Flint. I hope you enjoyed the experience. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. I'd love to come back.

Dan Moilean 28:44

Oh, you're certainly welcome.

Arthur Busch, Host 28:45

So if you like this podcast and other stuff, please sign up for our mailing list. It's free. You can do so at radiofreeflint.media. We've been provided in this podcast written and performed by George Winter.