Until then, Perry, his partners, and the Flint River basin farmers may be just a bit ahead of their time.

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In 2011 manufacturing expanded at three time the rate of overall GDP, according to Mark Perry of the University of Michigan-Flint, and the sector added 425, 000 jobs, also outpacing the national average.

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Mr. Perry is a professor of economics at the University of Michigan-Flint and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

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