Plain Talk: The case for crushing soybeans in Cass County, despite the controversy

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Minot, N.D. — If there is any lesson to be learned from the last few years of tumultuous international politics, and the crippling pandemic, it’s that we need our supply lines to get shorter.

For a long time, Americans have been content to see industry, from value-added agriculture to mining and manufacturing, move out of sight and out of mind. It’s clear that we need to bring that stuff back to the United States.

That’s not always as easy as it seems. There is a local political fight in Cass County over a soybean crushing facility. It’s exactly the sort of project we need built in America, and in North Dakota, which grows some of the best soybeans in the world, but some critics, adopting a not-in-my-backyard attitude , don’t want it.

Rep. Jared Hagrit, a Republican from District 20, a soybean grower himself and a past chairman of the United States Soybean Board, joined this episode of Plain Talk to talk about the Casselton project and why it’s important.