NDFU president responds to Farm Freedom legislation

January 24, 2023

Gov. Doug Burgum has touted his plan to blow holes in North Dakota’s corporate farming law. I wholeheartedly disagree with Burgum’s argument that corporate farming will benefit family farmers and ranchers. But I’m even more disappointed that Burgum is using false and misleading talking points to support his plan. Burgum has repeatedly said that the current law does not allow two unrelated farmers to partner with each other. That is simply not true. North Dakota law allows two unrelated farmers to partner with each other through general partnerships, limited partnerships, LLPs, ...

Farm Freedom can help animal ag, rural communities

January 23, 2023

Recently a bill was introduced by several North Dakota farmer-legislators to help promote animal agriculture and reverse decades of decline which have caused our state to fall far behind neighboring states. Farm Freedom legislation will remove the handcuffs that have held back our farmers and ranchers for way too long. The problem: Archaic North Dakota law prohibits anyone who is not related from pooling their resources to start an animal ag operation. For example, if two unrelated farmers who live next to each other want to join forces and launch a dairy, beef, hog or poultry ...

Fufeng national security issue continues to raise concerns

January 21, 2023

North Dakota is home to two U.S. Air Force bases -- Minot Air Force Base and Grand Forks Air Force Base – both significantly important to U.S. national defense. Minot AFB, 13 miles north of the city of Minot, has the distinction of being the only dual wing nuclear-capable base in the Air Force, hosting two legs of the Nuclear Triad. The 5th Bomb Wing has B-52 bombers and the 91st Missile Wing controls, maintains and oversees Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles in the Minot missile fields. Grand Forks AFB, 16 miles west of the city of Grand Forks, is an ...

Do Americans even want liberty?

January 21, 2023

As Americans, our civil liberties are often in a perilous position. Encroached on every side from every partisan and corporation, with their only shelter being a pesky document called the constitution. Not that this document is always respected when it comes time for the highest courts in the land to weigh in on the matter. They have no real allies, with everyone from so called small government conservatives to the in name only “American Civil Liberties Union” ready and willing to forego it all in the name of ideological hegemony. From the halls of Washington and in state ...

Books Unite Us. censorship divides Us.

January 17, 2023

As of August 2022, the number of attempts to ban or restrict library resources in schools, universities, and public libraries, is on track to exceed the already record-setting counts from 2021, according to the American Library Association (ALA). This data was released as libraries nationwide joined the ALA to promote the freedom to read during Banned Books Week last September. Between January 1 and August 31, 2022, ALA documented 681 attempts to ban or restrict library resources, and 1,651 unique titles were targeted. Meanwhile, in 2021, ALA reported 729 attempts to censor library ...

I’m off the train to cool town, and I love it

January 17, 2023

I was at dinner a few weeks ago when the cold hand of approaching death smacked me in the face. The blow came as I looked at a picture of my husband’s friend, a guy I’d last seen 20 years ago. “He looks so ... old,” I thought. Then, a horrifying addendum popped into my brain. Do I look old, too? I laughed nervously and glanced at a nearby mirror. The woman who looked back had gray hair and a body that no longer can be mistaken for that of a 22-year-old. But old? No way. I admit, having young children doesn’t help. Compared to them, I’m ancient, born in a time ...