Bismarck (NDFU) \u2013 A news release from North Dakota Farmers Union States, Mark Watne of Velva was reelected to a tenth year as North Dakota Farmers Union president by members and delegates attending the organization\u2019s 96th annual state convention this past weekend, Dec. 9-10, in Bismarck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his message to voting delegates, Watne emphasized the importance of member engagement through advancing technology and their involvement in legislative priority areas, including the crafting of a new farm bill, efforts to address corporate monopolies and fairness in the marketplace, protection of North Dakota\u2019s corporate farming law, and growth of renewable diesel and other fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat is it about NDFU that makes us unique? It\u2019s the grassroots,\u201d Watne said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Farmers Union members adopted four special orders of business during the two-day convention in addition to their 2023 Program of Policy and Action. The orders outlined priorities for the upcoming North Dakota legislative session and a new farm bill; Congressional and administrative action to ensure fair markets for farmers and ranchers; and adequate staffing and compensation for employees of the Farm Service Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members enjoyed a series of breakout sessions that focused on fuels of the future, wetland and water issues, Farmers Union\u2019s Fairness for Farmers campaign, and report from NDFU\u2019s Farm Bill Working Group. Other convention speakers included National Farmers Union President Rob Larew, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, NDSU crop economist Frayne Olson, Greg Tehven of Emerging Prairie and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Agraria Mutual Group (dba Farmers Union Insurance Company) also held its 79th annual meeting in conjunction with the NDFU state convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other elections, Bob Kuylen of South Heart was reelected vice president. Bob Finken of Douglas was reelected District 2 director for Bottineau, McHenry, Pierce, Rolette and Ward counties. Shane Sickler of Gladstone was reelected to the District 4 seat. That district encompasses the counties of Adams, Billings\/Golden Valley, Bowman\/Slope, Dunn, Hettinger, McKenzie and Stark counties. Shelly Ziesch of Pettibone was reelected to the District 6 seat. District 6 comprises a nine-county area: Dickey, Eddy, Foster, Kidder, LaMoure, Logan, McIntosh, Stutsman and Wells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members also elected delegates to represent North Dakota at the National Farmers Union Convention, slated for San Francisco in early March. They are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ANAMOOSE \u2013 April Marquart. ASHLEY \u2013 Terry Ulrich. BARNEY \u2013 Dalton Wiest. BOTTINEAU \u2013 Philip Neubauer, Tyler Neubauer. BOWMAN \u2013 Tim Fischer, George Siverson. CENTER \u2013 Dave Berger. COGSWELL \u2013 Olivia Throener. DAZEY \u2013 Justin Sherlock. DOUGLAS \u2013 Bob Finken. EDGELEY \u2013 Mike Schlosser. EGELAND \u2013 Adam Held. ELGIN \u2013 Wes Niederman. FORDVILLE \u2013 Julie Gemmill. GLADSTONE \u2013 Lenci Sickler, Shane Sickler. GRAND FORKS \u2013 Jeanna Smaaladen. JAMESTOWN \u2013 Lori Carlson, Mike Huebner. KINDRED \u2013 Josh Heinrich. MADDOCK \u2013 Richard Lynne. MANDAN \u2013 Mary Blumhagen, Marjorie Tomac, Miles Tomac. MCCLUSKY \u2013 Missy Axt. MENOKEN \u2013 Bill Kershaw. NAPOLEON \u2013 Carmen Rath Wald. PEKIN \u2013 John Kelly. PLAZA \u2013 Kevin Johnson. REGENT \u2013 Aaron Krauter. RYDER \u2013 Tyler Stafslien. SHARON \u2013 Ben Vig, Megan Vig. SHERWOOD \u2013 Jeri Keith, Steve Keith. SOUTH HEART \u2013 Sarah Kuylen. STANLEY \u2013 Ken Halvorson. TOLNA \u2013 Don Rude. VELVA \u2013 Shawn Kaylor. WILLISTON \u2013 Floyd Miller. WYNDMERE \u2013 Jim Dotzenrod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, 21 youths received the Torchbearer Award, the highest honor in the Farmers Union youth program. This year\u2019s honorees are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BARNES COUNTY \u2013 Haidyn Becker, Joesi Klein and Karina Olson, all of Valley City. BURLEIGH \u2013 Molly Jennings of Washburn, Luke Gader, Connor Wald and Mitchel Wald, all of Bismarck. DICKEY \u2013 Paige Henningsen of Monango. EMMONS \u2013 Paige Hulm of Linton and Kaylee Weninger of Strasburg. GRANT \u2013 Emilie Raab of Carson and Tate Rafteseth of Elgin. LAMOURE \u2013 Rylee Fischer of Edgeley. NELSON \u2013 Mary Rude of Tolna. OLIVER \u2013 Kayleigh Kraft and Breanna Vosberg, both of Center. ROLETTE \u2013 Clayton Brown of Rolette. SARGENT \u2013 Olivia Throener of Cogswell. WILLIAMS \u2013 Taylor Rath of Williston, Shelby Knox and Natalie Oster, both of Ray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three Torchbearers also received a $1,000 Bergman Scholarship each to help offset college education costs. Recipients were Shelby Knox of Ray, Taylor Rath of Williston and Mary Rude of Tolna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bismarck (NDFU) \u2013 A news release from North Dakota Farmers Union States, Mark Watne of Velva was reelected to a tenth year as North Dakota Farmers Union president by members and delegates attending the organization\u2019s 96th annual state convention this past weekend, Dec. 9-10, in Bismarck. In his message to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jamestown","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=264825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264830,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264825\/revisions\/264830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/146783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=264825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=264825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=264825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}