Editorial / Tom Dennis for the Grand Forks Herald / Wednesday, April 12, 2000
OUR VIEW: "Value added" process comes to high-tech life thanks to a forward-thinking farmers' co-op.
For a glimpse of what could be North Dakota's bright future, read the first "Mailbag" letter to the right. And no, we're not talking about drafting Gov. Ed Schafer for a third term.
We're talking about Drayton (N.D.) Grain Processors and the example they're setting for the state.
Futurists often lament that North Dakota lacks entrepreneurs, venture capital, high-tech industries and other benchmarks of modern prosperity. But Drayton Grain Processors found a uniquely Great Plains model for drumming up all three.
Herald Staff Writer Mikkel Pates profiled the company in an informative story ("A company on the rise," Page 1B, April 11). If you missed it, Drayton Grain Processors is a farmer-owned cooperative based in Drayton. The 210 members have invested an average of $20,000 each in a company called Drayton Enterprises.
And Drayton Enterprises not only buys the farmers' hard red spring wheat, but also turns the flour into baked goods at a technology-rich factory in Fargo. The dough products are sold across North America and Canada, sales are growing at a breathtaking 30 percent a year, and the company expects to show a profit this year, Pates reported.
Basically, this is the "value-added" economic development idea brought to moneymaking life. Rather than fret about farmers' 7-cent slice of every food dollar, the Drayton group resolved to go after the rest of the loaf -- the other 93 cents.
Or, as Roger Weinlaeder, today's letter writer, put it in an illuminating quote in the story, "Basically, it was a group of guys that were tired of sitting around complaining about how things were going."
Mind you, their choice was a gamble. Not all "value-added" efforts succeed; some fail, and the members lose their shirts. That's life in the modern free market, as bare-chested investors in Silicon Valley (as well as North Dakota) would ruefully admit.
But with smart management and a good business plan, other such ventures work. Drayton Enterprises seems to be among them. The company found all the elements of entrepreneurial success right here in North Dakota. They're out front, they're leading the way, and they're showing how "value added" works.:
