North Dakota is a land of agricultural opportunity. While most people recognize the direct economic value that grain and livestock enterprises bring to our communities, many don’t realize the potential value that can be added to our raw commodities. Locally grown corn is being turned into ethanol for our vehicles, edible oil for cooking, and high energy feed for livestock. Canola has long been crushed to produce biodiesel, edible cooking oil and livestock meal. Two new soybean crush facilities in Jamestown and Casselton will take raw soybeans once exported to China and convert them into soybean oil for cooking, industrial use, and biofuels, as well as soybean meal that is a high protein feed ideal for livestock finishing.
North Dakota is well positioned to benefit from our value-added agriculture sector by further refining these raw commodities and converting feed ingredients into finished meat products. In fact, economic studies from the University of Nebraska have shown that for every $1 of direct economic impact from livestock, an additional 62 cents or more in sales are generated outside the agriculture production complex.
Processing our corn and soybeans in state from a raw commodity into consumable products results in local jobs, more businesses, and less transportation. It also creates jobs in caring for livestock — from the livestock producer to the veterinarian, from the feed mill to the hardware store. With this growth comes a greater need for goods and services, such as barber shops, gas stations, coffee shops, grocery stores, and restaurants.
If the overall goal is to keep more dollars circulating in the local community, we need to be utilizing these value-added feed ingredients to produce more finished meat products from cattle, hogs, poultry, and dairy. To truly take advantage of our agricultural opportunities, North Dakota must continue to work towards transporting food products for human consumption rather than just bulk commodities. This is how we ensure that we have thriving communities for decades to come.
(Rep. Paul Thomas of Velva is the chair of the North Dakota House Agriculture Committee and represents District 6 in the House.)
The Trust Project