As National Ag Day – March 21, 2023 – celebrates its 50th year, we here at the Devils Lake Journal wanted to do something special to mark how important agriculture is to all of us. You can see that fact in our community through the businesses that depend on the farming community, like Leading Edge Equipment, Summers Manufacturing and High Plains Equipment for example. It’s evident, also, in the “Intersection of Appreciation” where in a strategic point along the U.S. Highway Two corridor Agriculture is one of the four monuments dedicated to the pillars of the region: Tourism, the Spirit Lake Nation, Camp Gilbert C. Grafton and Agriculture.
Ag Day
A theme for this year’s Ag Day is “Agriculture: Growing a Climate for Tomorrow” and its website explains the purpose “The Agriculture Council of America (ACA) is an organization uniquely composed of leaders in the agriculture, food and fiber communities dedicated to increasing the public awareness of agriculture’s vital role in our society. The Agriculture Council of America and the National Ag Day program was started in 1973.”
It continues to explain their core values: “ACA believes that every American should:
Understand how food and fiber products are produced
Appreciate the role agriculture plays in providing safe, abundant and affordable products
Value the essential role of agriculture in maintaining a strong economy
Acknowledge and consider career opportunities in the agriculture, food and fiber industry”
Farm Bill
Meanwhile, we learned that North Dakota’s Senator John Hoeven is to be one of the official authors of the next Farm Bill, so we set out to get more information about that, we figured it would come from his office through one of his aides.
Every five years the US Congress brings forth a new Farm Bill and since the last one came about in 2018, this is the year for a new one. Hoeven is one of the authors of the new Farm Bill being constructed by a bipartisan standing committee, the Committee on Agriculture, first formed in 1825 and in continuous existence ever since.
A personal interview, rather than a press release
It began with a phone call from his office, as suspected from one of his aides. We were told that the senator wanted to set up a time for a telephone interview rather than to handle this through the traditional press release. It took a bit of arranging, but it was set up for Friday, March 3 at approximately 2 p.m.
Hoeven began his conversation asking his own questions about Devils Lake and how things were going. Normally, we just expected that his office would send a press release on the topic at hand – National Ag Day, March 21 – but he had heard that the Devils Lake Journal was now locally owned and that the former editor (me) had come out of retirement to help out, so he wanted to talk to that individual personally. (We go way back!)
As we talked you could tell he was walking, navigating an airport somewhere in the U.S. as he was between flights to or from Washington DC and his next destination. This is merely speculation since he didn’t volunteer this information and I didn’t ask.
He did ask about Devils Lake and the city’s plans for improved health care facilities that he’d heard rumblings about and other projects ahead for the community, stating, “It’s been a while since I visited Devils Lake, so I’m going to see what I can do about that.”
This reporter wouldn’t be surprised if he came for a visit in the not-so-distant future. Stay tuned for that – I’ll let you know!
Look for a recap of the conversation with Senator John Hoeven on page 10 of today’s Devils Lake Journal.
