Kent Conrad: “Last week, I made a series of speeches on what I called the stealth disaster that is affecting North Dakota. This year…”

“Last week, I made a series of speeches on what I called the stealth disaster that is affecting North Dakota. This year, we have another disaster, but it is getting almost no attention. It is a stealth disaster. It is a stealth disaster because it is flying below the radar screen. It is not getting the kind of attention these other disasters did. And part of the reason is it is not so visible. It is not a story that you can easily put on television, but it is a disaster nonetheless. As I showed last week, farm income in North Dakota declined from 1996 to 1997 by one measure by 98 percent.”