Ag commercialization center gains steam in Spokane, WA

Chamber, SIRTI, WSU eye converting farm research into products, businesses

By Megan Cooley Spokane Journal of Business

An idea planted about a year ago—to open an agricultural technology commercialization center here—appears to be breaking through the topsoil.

The project, being pursued by the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, Washington State University, and now the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute, and others, is aimed at turning agriculture-related research into viable business opportunities, says Chamber President and CEO Rich Hadley. While the center could spur economic development in Spokane, it also could boost rural economies throughout Eastern Washington by giving farmers ways to supplement their income with new inventions, another project proponent says.

“We felt, as a chamber, that if we were really going to support agriculture, we were going to get into the economic-development side of it,” Hadley says.

If the center is developed, it likely would be based in Spokane, but would work closely with Eastern Washington farmers and with WSU researchers, including those based at the school’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, Wash.

“The goal of the center would be to commercialize agricultural products that result from agricultural research,” Hadley says. “Prosser doesn’t have that capability. We have SIRTI, and it’s easier to manufacture and assemble here, in an urban center.”

At this point, it’s unknown how much it would cost to open and operate an agricultural commercialization center here, says David Bauermeister, director of agriculture and natural resources for the Spokane chamber. “It would require some public funding to SIRTI to get it under way,” he says.

Hadley says an example of one product that could be developed is a small, wireless meteorological device that researchers at WSU have developed. The instrument reports to a central computer the weather conditions at various points, including in a single piece of property.

“It’s about the size of a pound of butter,” he says of the device. “The owner of an orchard, and orchards can be quite large, can put them in various points around the orchard. It gives him a way to manage his crop yield, and crop harvesting, and protect it from frost.”

Hadley adds that while WSU developed the product concept, the proposed commercialization center could find or help someone start a private company to manufacture it.

The University of Idaho; the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, at Idaho Falls, Idaho; the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, at Richland, Wash.; and the Tri-Cities Area Chamber of Commerce are among other groups also involved in the project.

SIRTI only recently joined the effort to launch the center, but likely will play a large role in its future, Bauermeister says. A SIRTI official confirmed that organization’s involvement, but declined to elaborate. Hadley says Patrick Tam, SIRTI’s executive director, and Bauermeister traveled to Prosser recently to discuss the idea with representatives of WSU’s Agriculture Research and Extension Center. Bauermeister adds that SIRTI could incubate startup companies formed specifically to develop such products.

The chamber here hired Bauermeister about a year ago to spearhead the annual Agricultural Expo and the Country Living Expo, to do agriculture-related public policy development, and to complete other ag-related duties. Hadley says the chamber made “a strategic change,” though, after hiring Bauermeister.

“We began a dialogue about, ‘How do we make more value out of what is already an important part of our economy?” Hadley says.

Opportunities for commercialization may be as plentiful as wheat fields at harvest time.

“There are always opportunities sitting there. There’s research that’s been completed and never commercialized,” he says. “The center would be connecting manufacturers to the potential products. It would be taking that research and connecting it to industry.”

Bauermeister sees the proposed center as a way to enrich the Inland Northwest economy, both in urban Spokane and in rural areas that have suffered.

“Hopefully, we can keep the research in the region,” he says. “We would hope some of this would be implemented in rural communities in the region. There’s been an exodus from those communities.”

Bauermeister is optimistic that looking in a new light at natural resources, which have been this region’s backbone for decades, could enhance the economy.

“We can’t walk past the natural resource industries that built our economy,” he says. “If we can strengthen our segments while we diversify, we feel that’s the key to having a healthy economy for the long term.”

http://spokanejournal.com/spokane_id=article&sub=1687