Aberdeen farmer running for National Farmers Union Vice President

ABERDEEN, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - The Kippley family knows a thing or two about farming, as they’ve been on their family farm outside of Aberdeen for nearly 50 years. That’s exactly why Jeff Kippley decided to run for Vice President of the National Farmers Union.

”The Farmers Union is a grassroots organization for farmers, run by farmers. It does three main things: it has a co-operative branch, it has the legislative branch and it has the education branch,” said Kippley.

Jeff and his wife Rachel have been a part of the Farmers Union for 20 years, and being Vice President wouldn’t be Jeff’s first leadership role in the organization.

”They have what they call Next Generation Advisory Representatives, and I was the second one of those that got appointed when they first started that,” said Kippley.

Creating a future for youth in farming is a priority on Kippley’s to-do list.

”My big motivation is just the future for our kids. You know, I want to make sure family farming is around for my kids and other kids around the nation. I think there’s a lot of things in DC that need to be changed in order for that to happen,” said Kippley.

One of the main issues Kippley wants to tackle as Vice President is creating fair markets for small family farmers. He believes large monopoly farms are driving out family-ran operations from rural areas.

”The bigger these monopolies get, the harder it is for a farmer to compete. My focus is on small-to-medium-sized family farms and making sure they can exist in the future,” said Kippley.

Kippley and other delegates from South Dakota will head to Denver later this month for the National Farmers Union Convention, where Kippley will face off with the incumbent for the Vice President Role.

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