I attended the planning and zoning commission and two county commission meetings in Morton County concerning a proposed feedlot. Since it involved animal agriculture, it was of interest to me, as a rancher and feedlot owner. I also am vice president of the Independent Beef Association of North Dakota, board member of Burleigh County Farm Bureau, active in R-CALF USA and the United States Cattlemen's Association.

I would like to recognize all the people who are members of each commission for the public service they do. The decision they made was not an easy one, the room was full of people and emotions on both sides. The decision made was much bigger than one feedlot in one county in North Dakota. With activists from the East and West coasts wreaking havoc on animal agriculture, a decision made in the heartland was an important one. I believe the decision made in Mandan approving animal agriculture in an area zoned agricultural was the right decision.

The second issue was the approach and trailer house. If you can spend half an hour with a front-end loader pushing dirt into a ditch and pulling a $50 trailer into a field to stop progress, this would set a dangerous precedent. There would never be another dairy, feedlot, packing plant, oil refinery, Wal-Mart or what have you if this is allowed.

Now, I am not going to give Fred Berger a blank endorsement. I expect every ordinance of Morton County, every rule of the Health Department and all laws of North Dakota be adhered to. However, I don't believe this will be a problem, since no one is dumb enough to lay out this kind of capital just to run a business so poorly that the health department would shut it down. In the end, I believe we will find that man and animal can co-exist.