Published 3:15 pm Tuesday, August 1, 2023
PULLMAN, Wash. — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked those gathered to mark the groundbreaking of the USDA Agricultural Research Service‘s new building to imagine the future.
He asked them to picture themselves inside the completed facility, located on the Washington State University campus in Pullman, Wash., as future researchers worked to understand “a particular disease impacting wheat production.”
“Imagine the spark, the passion, the energy, the excitement that occurs when the solution is discovered,” Vilsack said. “That’s what this facility is about — that moment of discovery.
“Imagine the student who is there at that moment, watching a mentor, helping to arrive at a conclusion that will be beneficial to producers here and around the world,” Vilsack continued. “Imagine the feeling that student will have when he or she returns to the dorm that night, recognizing that their work will make a difference to hundreds, to thousands, and maybe millions of people. Isn’t that what this facility is all about?
“Imagine the farmer in the field who is perplexed, who’s worried, who’s stressed because the pulse crop or the barley they’re trying to grow has been impacted and affected in a way they don’t understand,” Vilsack said. “They turn to the partnership here at WSU … they look to the solution, and they get it, and their crop is saved.”
Vilsack asked attendees to imagine farmers in Africa, Asia or South America receiving assistance and help because of research done at WSU to help them feed their communities.
“That’s what this facility is all about,” he said. “It’s about discovery, possibility, passion, problem-solving, hope and opportunity.”
Vilsack was one of many officials to mark the groundbreaking of the new building, slated to be completed in late 2025.
“We have been advocating for this building for more than two decades,” said Mary Palmer Sullivan, vice president of the Washington Grain Commission. “It will play a pivotal role in accelerating the advancement of wheat and barley crop yield and quality. … The result of these research efforts will not only benefit our farmers, but also contribute to our global food security.”
Chavonda Jacobs-Young, USDA Undersecretary of Research, Education and Economics, and USDA chief scientist, said WSU is one of USDA’s “most vigorous partnerships.”
“With this new facility on the horizon, our best days are ahead of us,” Jacobs-Young said.
“There’s something very fitting about celebrating it all with a groundbreaking, because, just like with farming, what we are doing today is digging up soil, and putting down roots that are going to grow into something truly special,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D- Wash.
The new building will house approximately 15 ARS scientists and 15 WSU scientists.
Four ARS research units will be housed in the new building — Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality; Grain Legume Genetics and Physiology; Northwest Sustainable Agroecosystems; and Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing.
Members of the WSU departments of plant pathology, crop sciences, soil sciences, and horticulture will share lab and office space with federal researchers.
