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It is the brainchild and years-long project of former House Ag chair, Collin Peterson. He believes the region is due for an ag policy voice that rivals that of the South and is now bringing the Midwest Ag Policy Center to life.
“We’re trying to set up this policy center, which is something I’ve been working on for a couple of years because I saw how effective this was in Texas and in Missouri,” Peterson said. “They’ve developed a cadre of about 200 producers that know more about this stuff than most policymakers do. They’re motivated. They spend their time and a lot of money on it, and it works.”
Peterson has brought in efforts from other Midwest ag leaders, lawmakers, researchers, economists, and educators to create a type of think tank that will specialize in the agricultural needs of the Midwest region. The goal is to be a resource for lawmakers as they consider legislation that will affect ag in the Midwest, such as the 2023 Farm Bill.
Though it will be housed at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota, Peterson wants the policy center to be a collaboration between the entire Midwest, with active participation from each.
“We’re going try to get the twelve states in the Midwest to work together to affect this Farm Bill. We have the most dollars of production, the most amount of production of anyplace in the world, and we just haven’t leveraged that, that power that we got,” he said.
The former congressman made the announcement at NDSU and was joined by North Dakota Senator John Hoeven. Hoeven emphasized that the center is not only for the entire Midwest but would benefit people around the nation.
“We would really help drive ag policy in a way that benefits farmers and ranchers not just from this region, but across the country. And there’s other examples of that in, for example, University of Missouri, Texas A&M, and so forth,” Hoven said. “But NDSU would be part of that working with other universities to make sure that we’re not only driving ag research forward, but that we’re getting the right kind of farm policy that benefits our farmers and ranchers, benefits our country, and really is the most cost-effective in terms of the taxpayer as well.”