The Ag Innovation Campus (AIC) board of directors certified its elected officers during a virtual board meeting Friday. Mike Skaug, vice president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, was named chair of the AIC.
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“I’m honored my fellow directors have elected me to this position,” says Skaug, a Beltrami farmer. “The Ag Innovation Campus is a game-changer for Minnesota’s ag economy, and we couldn’t be more excited for the future of this project.”
Gene Stoel, a Lake Wilson farmer and director with the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC) was named AIC vice-chair. MSR&PC director Tom Frisch will serve as treasurer. Jimmy Gosse, a microbiologist with the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI), was tabbed as secretary.
The Ag Innovation Campus in Crookston will host a specialty crushing facility, allowing universities, commodity groups, and private seed developers access to affordable processing that aims to lower costs while promoting the growth of value-added products. Once established, the AIC will host private industries to create products from the co-products of the facilities, benefiting all parties from farm gate to consumers.
During the 2020 Legislative Session, Minnesota lawmakers clarified language for the Ag Innovation Campus, ensuring $5 million will be directed toward soybean research and value-added agriculture. The funds for the AIC will be available in July with a tentative groundbreaking date projected for late 2020.
Agriculture contributes roughly 25 percent to Minnesota’s GDP, and northwest Minnesota is home to one of the country’s largest soybean-rich areas. In 2019, the 11 northwest Minnesota counties near Crookston produced more than 50 million bushels of soybeans.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but we have a board that’s very pragmatic, and we’re all working in the same direction,” Skaug says. “We are really determined to make the Ag Innovation Campus a success.”