Get Over It!

In the late 90s a group of farmers in Divide County, ND decided to build their own pasta plant. They were tired of only getting $2.50/bushel for their durum wheat which is used to make pasta. Over 80% of the durum wheat raised in the USA is produced within 150 miles of Crosby, the county seat for Divide County.

The $10 million project was financed with $3 million in equity from 283 area farmers and local citizens; $1 million in a grant from the USDA; $3 million in loans and a $3 million building that was leased. The company opened its doors in 2001 with 75 employees, a huge economic boost for the 1,000 population town. However, the plant only operated for 18 months, quickly closing its doors.

Les Knudson was chairman of the board of the plant and showed me around the modern facility. He explained to me what went wrong, “From a macro standpoint the Atkins diet was hitting its peak and the co-packing business that we were counting on never materialized. From a micro view we never learned how to make good pasta. We had 2 experienced managers but we just couldn’t make a consistent product. It killed us.”
Les Knudson has already picked himself up and is rapidly developing his own company, Superior Grains. However, other people in the town can’t forget the closing and still bemoan ever trying a project like it.

One of my main concerns for towns like Crosby is that they don’t put projects like the pasta plant behind them. They rehash failures like this over and over at the local coffee shop and are afraid to do other projects like it because of this misstep. That is a BIG mistake. Crosby needs to learn from what went wrong but in a positive sense in continuing to forge ahead. Crosby natives like Les Knudson and Scott Molander understand that. I wish that others in the community would too.