Goal 5. Create a political, regulatory, economic, trade, financial, and natural resource environment in which North Dakota producers can compete in the global marketplace. Sounds pretty lofty, huh? Well, if you’re going to dream, dream big. There are six objectives under this heading, including:

Objective 3. Ease or eliminate regulatory burdens. There’s language here about easing impediments of existing pesticide regulations, but the second paragraph in this objective is most interesting. It states: We recommend that farm organizations work to establish guidelines for determining regulatory policies and specifications, including environmental bonding where warranted, that balance the need for agricultural production and preservation of North Dakota’s valuable natural resources. These guidelines should be shared and coordinated with environmental, consumer, and regulatory groups. Oops! Did I miss something? Does this mean farm organizations should establish the guidelines for farmers? What a radical idea!

Objective 4. Reduce non-farm competition with individual farmers and ranchers for land acquisition including government agencies and non-profit organizations. This objective goes on further to state: We recommend that agricultural organizations in conjunction with the ND Association of Counties and the ND Township Officers Association develop model land use zoning guidelines for future generations. More specifically, we recommend: a statewide cap on CRP acreage at the current level, and that all future CRP be limited to highly erodible land and waterways; and retention of ownership and control of production agriculture in the hands of family farmers and ranchers by implementing a policy of no net loss of productive agricultural land.

Hmmm. That should give you something to think about until next month.