Solid Investment by Dee Shore
Plant sciences and Connect NC represent a chance to turn global challenges into local opportunities.
tate voters heading to the polls on March 15 will have a chance to help connect North Carolina farmers with next-generation agricultural and biological sciences. Connect NC, the popular name for the North Carolina Public Investment Bond Referendum, gives voters the say in whether the state will borrow $2 billion to invest in rural and urban infrastructure across the state. The funds would mainly be used for higher education, but there are also projects proposed for parks and recreation, water and sewer, public safety, and, importantly, agriculture and agribusiness, the state’s $76-billion-a-year economic engine. Two proposed facilities are significant for agriculture: the Plant Sciences Research Complex at NC State University and a laboratory complex for the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. As State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler has pointed out, the two buildings will help create a bright future for North Carolina and its agricultural sector. “We’re going to drive North Carolina forward,” he said. “We’re going to continue to lead the world in agriculture.”
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Marc Hall
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Sharing an optimistic handshake on what the North Carolina Public Investment Bond – also known as Connect NC – can mean to the state are Chancellor Randy Woodson (center, right) and Gov. Pat McCrory (right). Also shown are N.C. Rep. Tim Moore (left) and Lt. Gov. Dan Forest.
Concentrated world-class research NC State has a long history of creating worldleading scientific solutions to pressing agricultural and life sciences challenges. The plant sciences complex would be designed to stimulate the types of interdisciplinary interaction needed to continue to solve complex problems today and into the future. The $160 million building – $85 million of which would come from the bond package – is part of a larger initiative that’s focused on
helping North Carolina first while creating worldwide excellence, said CALS Dean Richard Linton. The North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative is aimed at making North Carolina’s Research Triangle the top global hub for plant sciences, with the building bringing together university, corporate and government scientists on NC State’s Centennial Campus. “The initiative will also place our students in an innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary
