Nearly a year after receiving funding from the Minnesota Legislature, the Ag Innovation Campus (originally called the Soy Innovation Campus) in Crookston is making progress and remains on track to reach a milestone in July.

In 2019, spurred by an advocacy push from Minnesota farmers, the Legislature approved $5 million toward the AIC in the omnibus agriculture finance bill. The funding will go into effect in the second half of the biennium budget in July 2020.

“We are very encouraged by the developments we’ve seen in the past several months,” says Mike Skaug, Minnesota Soybean Growers Association vice president, who also chairs the AIC board of directors. “We’re full steam ahead.”

SUPPORT IN ST. PAUL: MSGA Vice President Mike Skaug (right) is chairman of the Ag Innovation Campus board. Rep. Deb Kiel, R-Crookston, (left) has supported the project since its inception.

In September 2019, the permit process began in Crookston and the project continues to build momentum. With support from the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council, Jim Lambert has been tapped to serve as AIC project manager.

“This a very exciting initiative that will have a positive impact on — and help drive — the development of value-added agricultural products,” Lambert says. “This project will create a place to teach, innovate, develop and scale new products, better processes and novel technologies.”

MSRPC will continue hiring a team of contractors to further assist with construction and development.

The non-profit AIC board of directors includes MSGA and the MSRPC directors, along with representatives from the city of Crookston, the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute and Plasma Blue.

LEGISLATIVE BACKING: Paul Freeman (left), Minnesota Soybean Growers Association director, Starbuck, and Mike Skaug, MSGA vice president, Beltrami, visit with Sen. Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks. Johnson also has been supportive of the research campus.

AIC is in the process of building development of a specialty crushing facility that will provide affordable processing for universities, commodity groups and private seed developers. The goal? To promote growth of value-added products.

Originally, groundbreaking was scheduled for July, However, COVID-19 has pushed that date back. Once the permitting process wraps up, AIC will announce a date for groundbreaking and have a more targeted projected completion date. Plans also call to begin crushing specialty soybeans from the 2021 harvest.

Agriculture contributes roughly 25% to Minnesota’s GDP. 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.

“It’s fantastic to see this project become a reality for the Crookston area and farmers in northwestern Minnesota,” says Minnesota ag commissioner Thom Petersen. “In the current farm economy, it’s more important than ever to find new ways for farmers to process and market their commodities. The Ag Innovation Campus is a great example of how we can support those efforts.”

Source: Minnesota Soybean, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all of its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset