701-566-9300In their meeting last week, the ND Interim Agriculture and Natural Resources committee discussed the fact that about 332 political subdivisions – mostly cities and counties- have signed up for National Flood Insurance Program. This makes them eligible for subsidized flood insurance. What was discussed and was new to many is that there are many more polysubs which have not signed up. Mostly these are some of the approximately 1,500 or so organized townships which would benefit from doing the paperwork to apply. Cities, counties and township officials testified, with townships mentioning that they need to let their members know about the necessity of joining the national program. Testimony indicated that some township supervisors may disregard the initial mailing or emails when they see that it is about the requirement as they believe it is not important to them. They will be addressing that issue at their annual state convention in Bismarck this week. As rural residents, you may wish to bring it up to your township officers.
The other issue addressed at this meeting was ownership of agricultural land by foreign adversaries. To boil it down, it is very thorny because if something more is to be done, it would have some effect on the freedom to sell land to whomever you wish. Those property rights are dearly held. Testimony mentioned that foreign adversary ownership of land in the USA is very slight, with perhaps the greater threat to the advancement of the agricultural industry being research. Bayer is German held, for instance, while Syngenta has connections to Chinese ownership. Testifiers mentioned that China was our ally while Germany was our enemy within a lifetime and with that now flipped, how difficult it will be to make changes that can stand the test of time. Another testifier mentioned that ND Century Code has had language in effect for a long time and thought that it has and continues to serve our state adequately. Next meeting date has not been set.
