The JFK in Hays, Kansas committee and the Ellis County Democratic Party are pleased to announce the keynote speaker for a banquet honoring John F. Kennedy’s campaign visit to Hays in November 1959.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Oliphant, who co-authored a best-selling book about Kennedy’s 1960 campaign for the presidency, will share his insights at a 7 p.m. banquet on Nov. 20 at Kennedy Middle School, known as Jefferson West in 1959. Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie wrote “The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK’s Five-Year Campaign,” in which they detailed Kennedy’s unconventional path to the presidency.

General admission tickets are now on sale at $50 each. In 1959, tickets were $10, which today would cost $88. VIP seating includes assigned seats near the main table and is available at $100 per ticket. Event sponsors will meet Mr. Oliphant at a private reception before the banquet. Sponsorship levels are $2,500, which includes eight tickets and priority seating near main table; $1,000, four tickets and priority seating; $500, two tickets and priority seating. Sponsors also will have their name or company name on the banquet program. Those interested in becoming a sponsor can either email [email protected], call 785-628-6162 or stop by 1500 Vine. Copies of Mr. Oliphant’s book will be available for purchase at the banquet, and signed copies will be part of a raffle for prizes. Tickets are available at 1500 Vine, Hays, Kansas or online HERE or go to eventbrite.com and search for JFK in Hays, Kansas.

In addition to the banquet honoring the 60th anniversary of Kennedy’s visit, Mr. Oliphant will hold a 3:30 p.m. news conference that afternoon in the Memorial Union.

The evening before the banquet, at 7 p.m. on Nov. 19, there will be a panel discussion at the Fort Hays Ballroom on the FHSU campus focusing on Kennedy’s trip to Kansas in 1959 and Norbert Dreiling’s role. The panel discussion is free and open to the public.

In addition, Randy Gonzales — who graduated from Fort Hays State University in May 2019 with a master’s degree in history, and who wrote his thesis on Kennedy’s trip to Kansas — will discuss his thesis at 3 p.m. Nov. 7 at Forsyth Library on the FHSU campus, at the opening of an exhibit focusing on Kennedy and Dreiling.

Presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy toured five cities in a Kansas tour November 19-20 of 1959. Prior to arriving in Hays, Kennedy stopped in Kansas City, Wichita, Dodge City and Salina. Instead of relying on party leaders to choose a candidate at the national convention, Kennedy ushered in a new era, traveling from state to state to win delegates. While in Hays, Kennedy gave an interview to the local television station, held a press conference in the Memorial Union on the campus of Fort Hays Kansas State College (now Fort Hays State University), rode in a parade down Main Street, and was the keynote speaker at the banquet. There was an overflow crowd at the fundraiser in the school’s gym, with 645 in attendance.

For updates on the banquet and other planned events, visit the committee’s Facebook page, JFK in Hays, Kansas.

The newest member of the Office Products Inc. family will open its doors in Hays at 1218 E. 27th on Nov. 1, extending the reach of the Great Bend-based, family-owned business.

OPI has been in business for six decades in Great Bend and also has stores in Larned and Russell.

Kenny and Terry Vink, who are brothers, co-own the new location; they collaborated on the venture with their brother, Craig.

“We always look for ways to grow our business,” said Kenny Vink. “Our family has served central Kansans for more than 60 years and we have a strong core business. But if a business doesn’t grow it stagnates.”

The new store in Hays will offer many of the same products and services as the locations in Great Bend and other communities. These include: sales and service for Canon, HP and Brother copiers and printers; office furniture; custom office design; and a wide variety of office supplies.

“Customers in the Hays area also will have easy access to our specialty services in Great Bend,” Vink noted. “For example, our Copy Center, printing service, computer sales and service, and a range of promotional products will be at customers’ fingertips.

“Most of these services can be handled by our in-house staff in Hays, as well as by phone and email.”

“This involves extensive continuing education, especially for our experts in computer and networking services,” he noted. “We will continue this legacy and grow for
our employees and the communities we serve. This has worked for many years and now Hays area residents can reap the benefits too.”

Vink noted that he and his brother have considered a brick-and-mortar Hays location for quite a while. They recently decided now is the time.

“In today’s market, we knew we needed growth,” Vink said. “And we will help neighboring northwest Kansas businesses prosper too because we buy locally. We know how important this is to the overall economic health of any community.

“Customers of the new store can expect the same prompt and professional service that OPI is known for,” he added.

Opening the new store is not OPI’s first venture into the Hays area; two employees have been available there for sales and service for a few years. They will serve customers in the new store, along with Ty Berry who will fill the manager position.

Berry said he is “looking forward to bringing an OPI store to Hays. I am excited be part of OPI’s growth in northwest Kansas.”

OPI employees in Hays will call on current and new customers within a 60-mile radius; the Great Bend store also reaches a 60-mile radius. The OPI website and online
catalog are always available for shopping and ordering.

OPI is located at 1204 Main in Great Bend; 516 Broadway in Larned; 724 N. Main in Russell; and soon 1218 E. 27th in Hays.

— Submitted

HPL

The Hays Public Library will hold a launch party on November 9 to kick off a new program to encourage parents and caregivers to read with children. The 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten initiative is a free reading challenge aimed at growing children’s literacy skills.

“Many children experience difficulty learning how to read. Those who are not proficient readers will have difficulty during their school years and beyond,” said Early Literacy Librarian Sara Schoenthaler. “The ability to read is THE gateway skill to learning and accessing the world. Those children who are read to and exposed to books consistently and from a young age are better prepared to read and succeed.
Parents and caregivers are the first and best teachers of their 0-5 year olds.”

Studies have shown that reading with a child provides a great opportunity for bonding. Reading together is fun and will create life-long memories for both the child and parent. Experts agree that children who learn the necessary skills early do better in school and later in life.

Participating in 1000 Books Before Kindergarten can help put children on the right track.

The Hays Public Library will provide logs to track the number of books read. Each time 100 books are read, a child gets a sticker from the children’s service desk. After completing 500 and 1000 books, a child will get to choose a free book to keep. As much fun as it is to read new stories, families are encouraged to count every time they reread a favorite book. The goal is not to read 1,000 NEW books but to read with their child 1,000 times, no matter if it is the same book over and over again.

Each November the library will host a “graduation” party for anyone that completed the program in the previous 12 months.

A launch party will be held at the library November 9 at 11:30 a.m. This event also will serve as the kickoff of Kansas Reads to Preschoolers Week.

You can find out more about this and other library programs at hayslibrary.org or by calling 785-625-9014.

P-burg plant, two others in Canada, slated to lead North American production within year

By KIRBY ROSS
Phillips County Review

PHILLIPSBURG — In Canada, the legal term for it is cannabis. In Kansas, hemp. And with Canadian corporate support and Australian financing, as well as Swedish technical know-how, in Phillips County it’s now called “local industry.”

Exactly one year ago on Thursday of last week, the possession, use, and sale of dry leaf form cannabis became legal in Canada, both for recreational purposes and medicinal.

Then on that one year anniversary other forms of Canadian cannabis — edibles — also became legal there, including cannabis cookies, pizza and soda pop, along with baking products, such cannabis flour, cooking oil, and butter.

Dovetailing into those developments in Canada, in April of last year Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer signed into law the “Alternative Crop Research Act” which allows the Kansas Department of Agriculture to oversee the cultivation of hemp for purposes of research.

A month later Gov. Colyer signed a related bill into law referred to as the “Updating Substances of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act.” That bill exempted cannabinoidiol, aka CBD oil, from the definition of marijuana, effectively legalizing it. CBD oil had earlier begun being used in food and beverage products in the United States in 2017.

And, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture, in 2018 the U.S. Farm Bill–

“…removed federal restrictions on the establishment of commercial hemp programs and allows individual states to develop a plan to license the commercial production of hemp and further directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a plan for states that do not do so.

“In order to establish a program for the commercial production of industrial hemp, Kansas must develop a plan through KDA, in consultation with the Governor and Attorney General. Any such plan must be submitted to USDA for approval.”

The Kansas Department of Agriculture further notes–

“The opportunity to grow a new specialty oilseed crop in Kansas offers potential for diversification for Kansas farmers looking for an alternative crop, or for new farming enterprises interested in cultivating industrial hemp.

“The Kansas agriculture industry has developed a statewide strategic growth plan in recent years, and is committed to pursuing new and innovative opportunities to grow agriculture.

“The research generated by participants of this new industrial hemp program will be valuable data in identifying the growth potential offered in this sector.”

Enter Phillips County into the story. On the one year anniversary of widespread legalization in Canada, and on the occasion of the expansion of legalized byproducts of cannabis/hemp in Canada and Kansas, MMJ Group Holdings Ltd of Nedlands, Australia, revealed it has partnered with Canada-based Embark Health Inc. in expanding its multi-million dollar cannabis extraction plant right here in rural Phillipsburg, Kansas.

In support of the project, Embark, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, has received a $10 million infusion of new capital from investors, including $3.6 million from MMJ.

With Canada legalizing the adult use of cannabis, Embark, a privately held company helmed by Bruce Dawson-Scully, of Delta, British Columbia, has been taking a leading worldwide role in providing cannabis and derivative products utilizing cannabis extracts for the marketplace.

Toward the purpose of manufacturing those extracts, Embark has been doing business in Phillips County since April 29, 2019, with, according to sources, the support of Canadian and Swedish nationals.

MMJ Group’s newest investment with Embark, to be finalized no later than October 31, 2019, will raise MMJ’s 12 percent holdings in Embark up to a total of $9.8 million, almost triple its book value.

MMJ’s infusion of funding in the project is part of the $10 million capital mobilization conducted by Embark to finance the build-out of its cannabis extraction facility south of Phillipsburg, as well as two Canadian sister-facilities in Delta, British Columbia, and Woodstock, Ontario.

Regarding MMJ’s investment in the Phillips County and Canadian extraction plants, MMJ Chairman Peter Wall says, “This is another example of MMJ’s strong market and financial discipline identifying opportunities and bottlenecks in the cannabis value-chain in markets and acting quickly.”

The company further notes that when the Phillipsburg cannabis production facility and the two others are operational, “Embark Health will be a significant cannabis extraction producer servicing the Canadian and global medical and recreational markets.”

Regarding the processing of cannabis, Chairman Wall foresees Phillipsburg, Woodstock and Delta as playing a dominant role across the entire continent within a year.

Says Wall, “Embark Health has executed its business plan and is well positioned to become one of the largest cannabis extraction businesses in North America within twelve months. The investment demonstrates MMJ’s expertise to secure a private negotiated investment in listed and unlisted cannabis businesses.”

Embark Chief Executive Officer Bruce Dawson-Scully is founder of WeedMD of Aylmer, Ontario, Canada, which he notes is a “pharma-grade medical cannabis production facility.” Dawson-Scully has also served as a healthcare consultant to the Chinese government.

In a public statement MMJ states it believes there to be “A much larger market for cannabis products as consumption methods like vapes, edibles, and drinkables will drive most of the adoption and consumption in the mainstream.” Currently the most common method of cannabis consumption is through rolling papers and water pipes.

MMJ states “Embark intends to have two state-of-the-art THC, CBD, and CBG extraction facilities to service Canada’s medical and recreational markets in Delta, British Columbia and Woodstock, Ontario, in addition to optimising a C1-D1 hempseed extraction facility in Phillipsburg, Kansas.”

According to MMJ, in Phillipsburg, “This facility, to be operational in late 2020, will extract hemp seeds and produce hemp protein isolates and cooking oil in addition to CBD isolate. This facility will process 5,000 pounds of biomass per day.”

In order to process that amount per day by this time next year, the cannabis to be used will soon be in full production.

Embark’s website, which has a dedicated page on its Phillipsburg operations (seen at the right), lists the nature of the hemp protein isolates the facility will be creating–

“Delicious, nutritious and nutty in flavour, our hemp seed isolate powder and baking flour are both naturally white and will not change the colour of your baked goods. Paced with 21g of protein per serving, it is vegan, non-gmo, gluten-free, soy-free, lactose-free, kosher, keto and paleo.”

Regarding the hemp seed cooking oil, Embark says it is “Unlike any hemp seed oil available today, Embark’s golden oil has a high cooking point — you can cook with this nutritious oil up to a flash point of 400 degrees.”

Stockopedia provides a business profile of the multi-million dollar investor in Phillips County business operations, MMJ Group Holdings–

“MMJ Group Holdings Limited, formerly MMJ PhytoTech Limited, focuses on developing and commercializing medical cannabis (MC) and MC-based therapeutics.

“Its principal activities include production and distribution of cannabinoid-based food supplements across the Europe, and Pharmaceutical research and development of delivery technologies for administration of cannabinoids.

“Its segments include Cultivation; Processing and Distribution; and Clinical Research.

“The Cultivation segment’s activities include the various applications for cultivation and distribution licenses under the marijuana for medical purposes regulations (MMPR) by Health Canada.

“The Processing and Distribution segment’s activities include processing, manufacturing and distribution of cannabis-based, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetics product across the European market.

“The Clinical Research segment’s activities include clinical research of delivery systems and devices.”

“The company’s portfolio includes Harvest One, PhytoTech Therapeutics, WeedMe, Fire and Flower, Bien, BevCanna, and others.”

Article reprinted from the Phillips County Review, with permission. The Phillips County Review has been named by the Kansas Press Association as being the state’s top newspaper in its circulation class for 2019, beating out over 180 other publications.

Editor and writer Kirby Ross, has also personally won over 20 Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence for his newspaper work over the past three years, including first place recognition for news reporting, news and writing excellence, feature writing, political and government reporting, investigative reporting, editorial writing and news photography. He can be reached at [email protected].

By JIM MCLEAN
Kansas News Service

DIGHTON, Kansas — A billboard along Interstate 70 boasting about the productivity of Kansas farmers may say more about what’s happening in agriculture than those who put it there realize.

The message seems simple and straightforward: “1 Kansas Farmer Feeds 155 People + You!”

A closer look reveals it’s been crudely updated — an indication that the tally changes with some frequency.

The steady escalation of the number of people fed by a single Kansas farmer — from 73 in the 1970s to 155 today — reveals how lots of small farmers have been replaced by large farmers intent on getting even bigger.

That trend threatens scores of small towns that sprouted on the prairie in a different time, when larger numbers of small farmers depended on them.

Many of Kansas’ small towns look weathered, worn and neglected after more than a century of exodus. Most rose up more than a century ago, to meet the basic needs of farmers. They established banks and churches. Grocery stores and implement dealers prospered.

Consider Atwood, the childhood home of former Gov. Mike Hayden.

The Atwood that Hayden knew growing up during the 1950s was a bustling town of about 2,000 people tucked into the northwest corner of the state. Well-kept shops lined Main Street. Hayden recalls six grocery stores, five car dealers, at least one pharmacy and a thriving local newspaper.

“It was,” he said, “Norman Rockwell’s America.”

Since then, the town lost nearly half its population. Most of those foundational businesses, Hayden said, “eroded away” and took the community’s core of civic leaders with them.

As governor in the late 1980s, Hayden spoke defensively about the decline of rural Kansas. A pair of East Coast academics — Frank and Deborah Popper — proposed returning expanses of rural Kansas and other Great Plains states to the buffalo as part of a massive nature preserve.

Hayden ridiculed the idea.

“I came out guns blazing,” Hayden said. “I thought the Poppers were off base and that they should perhaps go back east and we’d be just fine out here.”

He now says he was wrong.

“They were right about the out-migration they observed,” Hayden said. “In fact, it’s happening faster than they predicted.”

Several factors are responsible for the decline, Hayden said, including consolidation in the ag economy. He cited his family farm as an example.

In 1960, Hayden said, that farm supported 17 people. Most of them lived in and around Atwood. Today, it supports only three.

Today, that farm is bigger and churns out more grain than ever. But only one of the three people tending the land works at it full-time.

“My brother can do it all by himself,” Hayden said.

A report issued last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that as recently as 1987, mid-sized farms between 100 and 1,000 acres covered nearly 60% of the nation’s cropland. By 2012, those midsize farms had lost about half their acreage to large farms — those of 2,000 acres or more.

Don Hineman’s western Kansas farm — located just south of Dighton — covered 3,000 acres when he returned from college in 1973 to help manage it.

It’s now 14,000 acres, or nearly 22 square miles, and still growing.

“When you have opportunities for growth you’d better grab them,” said Hineman, a state representative who chairs the House Committee on Rural Revitalization.

Getting bigger, Hineman said, made him a more efficient farmer and a better steward of the land. He can afford the sophisticated equipment needed for the latest precision agriculture.

Those systems map fields in great detail and analyze nutrient levels in different patches of soil so satellite-guided planters and sprayers can deliver the smallest amount of seed and fertilizer to grow the most bountiful crops.

“It bothers me to some extent that what we’re doing on our farm is, in a way, contributing to the decline of the local community,” Hineman said. “But it’s a matter of self-preservation. You either get bigger or you get out.”

Gail Fuller contends that’s simply not true.

“We’ve been sold a bill of goods,” Fuller said.

He owns a small farm near Emporia and challenges the notion underlying much of U.S. agriculture policy that American farmers need to feed the world with commodity crops.

“We’re doing it at the expense of the climate, the environment,” Fuller said.

Large-scale commodity farming, he argues, puts farmers at the mercy of markets that often fail to return breakeven prices and saddles them with debt.

Fuller shrank his farm dramatically several years ago after a lengthy dispute over a crop insurance payment pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy.

“We’re a very diverse operation,” Fuller said, explaining that he grazes cattle on perennial grasses and grows only enough grain to feed his pigs and chickens.

Fuller markets pricey grass-fed beef and other products directly to consumers and said he’s just starting to turn a profit after years of being buried in debt.

“Most people hate paying income taxes,” he said. “I actually look forward to it after being beat up for 10 or 15 years.”

Even with farm bankruptcies on the rise, most ag economists say it’s unlikely that a significant number of Kansas commodity farmers will follow Fuller’s lead despite evidence that sticking with the status quo means the continued hollowing out of rural communities.

“We have seen these trends of population and economic decline going on for just about a century now,” said John Leatherman, a Kansas State University agricultural economist.

Those trends, Leatherman said, are being driven by major economic forces beyond the control of Kansas farmers, community leaders — or state policymakers.

Given that trajectory, Hineman, the state lawmaker and large-scale farmer, said he hopes that taxpayers in Kansas’ urban and suburban centers won’t tire of subsidizing rural communities as they fight for survival.

“We’re all in this together,” he said. “It’s unrealistic and unthinkable that urban Kansas would say, ‘Solve your own problems rural Kansas. We’re done with you.’”

This is the second in a series of stories investigating the decline in rural Kansas and efforts to reverse it. The next story looks at how communities can either shrink and whither, our find ways to thrive with a smaller population.

Support for this season of “My Fellow Kansans” was provided by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, working to improve the health and wholeness of Kansans since 1986 through funding innovative ideas and sparking conversations in the health community. Learn more at healthfund.org.

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks or email [email protected].