MCGA Board Welcomes Jim Kanten as President

Oct 02, 2024

The Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) Board of Directors welcomes Jim Kanten as its 2024-25 president. An MCGA board member since 2019, Kanten grows corn and soybeans with his dad and brother on their family farm in Milan. His term runs through Sept. 30, 2025.

Kanten comes from a long tradition of farmer-leaders. His grandma Anne Kanten was among a group of women that founded the American Agricultural Movement (AAM), a grassroots organization aimed at keeping families on their farms. Anne Kanten and her husband, Chuck, spent much of their time from 1978-1980 working, speaking, and lobbying for AAM. In 1978, they joined a national tractorcade to Washington, D.C., with Chuck and son Kent (Jim’s dad) driving the family tractor out east.

In 1981, Anne Kanten was appointed Minnesota’s deputy commissioner of agriculture. She was instrumental in the state’s creation of the Minnesota Farm Advocate Program, which provides one-on-one assistance to farmers facing crisis caused by natural disaster and/or financial problems.

Kanten said his grandma was happy that he became involved in ag policy. “She saw it as a kind of tradition in the family,” he said. (Anne Kanten died in 2020.)

Kanten said he enjoys the day-to-day variety of farming and seeing how the crops change over the season. He said a challenge his operation faces is finding workers, noting that the H-2A program through which his family employs foreign seasonal workers can have excessive bureaucracy.

He predicted that 2024-25 will present challenges but said he’s confident Minnesota’s family corn farmers have the ability, ingenuity, and determination to meet them. He added that joining MCGA is a great way for corn farmers to get involved in issues important to agriculture and rural communities. (The MCGA membership form can be found online here. Or, you can get one from your district field manager.)

“Given the challenges we face in agriculture, it’s important that as many farmers participate in MCGA and its grassroots advocacy as possible,” Kanten said. “There are plenty of ways to get involved. You could participate in an online call-to-action, attend a county corn grower association meeting, or even just read an article about farm policy. However you want to be involved, we’d love for all corn farmers to help shape the long-term prosperity of agriculture and rural communities.”

Kanten is one of four members of the MCGA board’s 2024-25 leadership team. St. James crop and hog farmer Wes Beck is first vice president, Murdock crop farmer Todd Wentzel is treasurer, and Cannon Falls crop and cattle farmer Rob Tate is secretary.

Also today, the MCGA board recognizes 2023-24 President Dana Allen-Tully for her ongoing contributions to Minnesota Corn. Allen-Tully, a dairy and crop farmer in Eyota, remains a member of the MCGA board and is serving as past president/chair of the board in 2024-25.

With nearly 7,000 farmer-members, MCGA is Minnesota’s grassroots corn farmer association. Founded in 1978, MCGA advocates on behalf of corn farmers, supports county corn growers associations, and works closely with the Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council to fund research, promotion, and outreach.

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