While some conservatives think they're scoring points with simplistic kvetching about "earmarks" all being the equivalent of the famous "bridge to nowhere" sought by Alaska Republican Don Young, it's becoming increasingly clear that some earmarks just make sense.
Yesterday's Owatonna People's Press made that point in an editorial about federal funding for a flood mitigation project in the Steel County city: An Earmark That Makes Sense. The editorial concluded:
". . .there are times when the projects are worthwhile. The earmark that Mr. Walz has proposed for Owatonna is one such case. What makes it important is that it is not a bridge to nowhere, but funds which will help a community prevent flooding and help residents keep their homes from being damaged. Keeping people and their property safe from the ravages of Mother Nature seems a worthwhile goal for the government."
Yesterday, Congressman Walz visited the Hormel Center, another project that seeks to protect people from the ravages of Mother Nature. This time, though, the project addresses a different threat than flood waters.
Cancer.
The Rochester Post Bulletin reports in Walz tours Hormel Institute:
Walz said he will keep pushing for the institute to receive a $5 million federal earmark in 2009 to help pay for equipment and instruments in its new International Center of Research Technology. The center could cost as much as $10 million, with additional costs of staff, other instruments and possibly more space.
Cancer research
Officials are pitching the center as a place for biomedical researchers from the nation and world to use in finding a cancer cure.
Walz said the outcome of the new funding request should be known in a year.
"This is a story that I tell often in Washington," Walz said. "And I think that you should never take for granted that this is a very unique thing that happened here -- very unique operation, very visionary."
Austin is remaking itself and taking a proactive role, he said.
The Hormel Institute is in the process of a $20 million expansion and makeover project that will triple its size. A grand opening is set for Oct. 3, a day before it hosts the eighth international Skin Carcinogenesis Conference.
Overall, more than 100 new jobs are expected to emerge in Austin with the institute's expansion and proposed research center.
Local residents raised more than $1.4 million for the institute's expansion, topping a $1 million goal. The expansion also got $425,000 in federal funds secured last year by Walz.
"This is one of the premiere research institutions in the world," Walz said.
While the Hormel Institute is next to the Hormel Foods' corporate center, the paper notes that the project is part of the University of Minnesota. The Institute's web site adds that the research center collaborates with the Mayo Clinic.
Not only does the Institute pursue vital research, it's a key piece in Southern Minnesota's development as a center for bioscience and biobusiness:
Just as the computer industry took off in California's Silicon Valley, U.S. Rep. Tim Walz thinks southern Minnesota is positioned for similar success with bioscience research.
Walz, a DFLer from Mankato, said Wednesday during a tour of the Hormel Institute that it's an exciting time for the region.
Walz viewed the newly expanded institute with various other local officials, including Jeffrey Ettinger, chief executive officer of Hormel Foods Corp. Reporters weren't allowed on the tour.
Ettinger furthered the computer-industry comparison in a compliment to the institute's executive director, Dr. Zigang Dong.
"He's Austin's Bill Gates," Ettinger said.
More below the fold.
The May 23 Austin Herald noted in Hormel Institute hosts bioscience conference:
Sponsored by [the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation], the Hormel Institute was chosen as the host for the event, what SMIF president/CEO Tim Penny calls a “did you know” conference.
“We have begun to focus more on biobusiness as a priority area,” said Penny, explaining their decision to ask Austin to host the conference was “largely because of the Hormel Institute.”
SMIF plans to award four “Bio Seed Funds” this year, up to $25,000 each in seed capital to develop or process products in bio-agriculture.
Clean Plus Inc., a pre-existing company who develops bio-agriculture products in West Concord, Minn., used their Bio Seed Fund dollars to market a new oil absorbent product made from corn stalks.
“It’s the new ideas who are going to have to find funding,” Penny said.
SMIF also offers 15 microfunds and 15 gap funds.
Jeremy Lenz, vice president of operations for The BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, explained during a presentation at the conference about the business of “bio” and how Minnesota aims to be not only a player, but a leader in the industry.
“This is a very, very big industry,” he said. For every bioscience job, there are 6.7 total jobs, he said.
SMIF’s goal in the next year will be to identify biobusiness assets in southern Minnesota and strategies to encourage those businesses.
According to the alliance, “biobusiness” is defined as “economic activity devoted to the development and commercialization of bioscience or bioscience-related technologies, products or services.”
“Bioscience” is “knowledge based on the life sciences, especially emerging molecular and cellular biology, and also science applied to human health, agriculture and bio-related industry.”
The Hormel Institute’s draw for the conference was appealing to SMIF because of its new expansion, set for a grand opening Oct. 3. . . .
KAAL-TV also covered the conference:
. . .A conference called "Growing Bio" brought together researchers, community leaders and investors to show that they have more similarities than differences
"You get corn people talking to medical people, you put them together in the same room, get out of the way and let the creative juices and innovation take over," says John Garry.
And while developers of alternative forms of energy, pharmaceuticals and cleaning products might not seem to have much in common, they're all speaking the same language.
"When they have a chance to get to know each other and sort of exchange stories they do have that science language that merges those areas, and they're not so separate," says Garry.
And southeastern Minnesota seems poised to make the most of that bio-potential because of new ground being broken by places like the Mayo Clinic and the Hormel Institute.
"As you look at the bio biz sector, it provides the greatest opportunity for future growth in our area because we have so many of those assets in place here," [Tim] Penny says.
While some commentary's might seek to tout the SMIF over public efforts, in truth the foundation is a public-private partnership funded by both sectors. It's motto is "investments that break new ground."
And it's promoting public and private investments in places like the
Hormel Institute. Walz's earmarks are a piece in that investment--and
the worldwide search for a cure for cancers.
Next up in our look at earmarks: Chesapeake Bay, the Farm Bill and Dick Day. We have a couple more bits of reading and research to do related to some of Day's campaign trail cracks
about earmarks Senate negotiators brought to the Farm Bill ; we're
finding that the answers are taking us to some surprising places.
One thing we do have to give credit to Day for: he's masterful at getting the press to cover his primary challenge to the endorsed candidate in the MN-01 congressional race.. If we were the average media consumer, we might think he was the front runner in that race.
Photo: Zigang Dong, the Bill Gates of Southern Minnesota bioscience research.
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