Biotechnology In Eastern NC

Today there was an exciting meeting held in the Vernon James Research Center in Plymouth NC. The Biotechnology In Eastern NC partnership . . . between various citizen groups and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center . . . drew an excellent attendance.

Jordan Whichard, Publisher of the Greenville Daily Reflector, is Chairman of the Advisory Committee holding the meeting, and he gave welcoming comments, along with Dr. David Peele, Vice Chairman of the Committee and President of Avoca, Inc, a leading bio-tech firm from our area.






The opening presentation was made by John Chaffee (shown below), Director of the Eastern Office of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. It was titled "Where are we today? 29 Months and 29,000 miles later."







Mr. Chaffee noted that the group had been established in 2006 with 25 member advisory committee using 16 strategies and 5 action teams. There were 4 ambitious goals established;
Establish internationally recognized marine bioscience consortium (and Center of Innovation), Create a framework to develop or attract world class biotech companies to develop, grown and process crops in northeastern NC, Establish BioEast Alliance region as a premier location for biomanufacturing, Advance drug discovery and CTs.




The next presentation was by Vann Rogerson (shown above), President of the North Carolina Northeast Commission, and he spoke on "Potential for expansion of the plant biotechnology sector".




He was joined in the presentation by Nick Oberlies (shown above), Director of the Natural Products Laboratory, RTI International.

The next presentation was done by Ken Perry (left below), Operations and Facilities for Bertie County Schools, Dr. Chip Zullinger (center below), Superintendent of Bertie County Schools, and Carol Atkins (right below), Executive Director for Educational Programs of Bertie County Schools.

[An earlier article about this Ag-Science High School can be found here.]




Dr. Zullinger, with Ken and Carol's assistance, gave a presentation entitled, "Responding to the Challenge & Opportunity, An Agricultural High School." Based on the interest and enthusiasm of the people present for the topic, this was clearly the highlight presentation of the meeting.

Dr. Zullinger spoke of how his interest was tirggered by Benjie Forrest, Agriculture Education Coordinator for NC State, asking him why there was no agriculture teacher in our Bertie County High School. Bertie County is almost totally dependent on Agriculture, with 75% of our county's individuals income being derived from agriculture. This is much higher than the vast majority of North Carolina's counties. It is clearly unusual that a county like Bertie has no focus on Agriculture.

Carol atkins explained how Shaw University and NC State were assisting in putting together some thoughts on how this Ag-Science High School could be made to happen, under a program that provides a curriculum that would be a joint high school and college, with graduates getting credit for the first two years of college s they graduate from high school.

Shaw University has also brought plans to place a $5 million bio-fuels production lab to Bertie County, so that efforts can be made to work out how to move bio-fuels forward, without contributing to world hunger in the process.

The empty former Southwestern Middle School in Bertie County is a perfect location, since this school is capable of handling 900 students, and is in nearly perfect condition. Since, though empty, it is still being maintained, it really adds no costs to Bertie County to use if for this new high school.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has offered seed money to get the high school up and runnning. As noted, NC State is providing assistance with the curriculum.

Though there are some in the black community that can only see the dark side of their previous involvment in agriculture, an Ag-Science High school in a predominately black community like Bertie County seems highly appropriate since George Washington Carver was truly the inventor of ag-science in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. George Washington Carver was one of the world's half dozen greatest scientists of the last century.

This will be the first ag-science high school in North Carolina, and its potential is truly awesome.





Closing remarks were made by Norris Tolson (shown above), President of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

During the meeting, one of the most interesting handouts was something that I have never received in a meeting before. It was a soil sample (shown below) . . . yes, dirt . . . from the "black lands" of our area.




Because my mother is an avid gardener, I gave it to her to use for some of her flowers. It was an interesting handout though, indicating why Eastern North Carolina has so much potential for ag-science.