Cargill Gives $1 MIL to Fund Research Facility

MANHATTAN, KS-A million dollar gift to Kansas State University by CargillInc. is part of an effort to raise funds for a new grain science center on the Manhattan campus.

In all, $60 million is needed. Half of the money is expectedto come from private companies, with the balance coming from publicsources including state and Federal governments. University officialshope that the funding will be collected by next spring.

The new grain science center will be comprised of five buildings: a flour mill, feed mill, international grain center abioprocessing, or wet mill building, as well as a building forauditorium-style classrooms and administrative offices.

“We have come to realize through the years that it is not a good ideato have a science research building connected to classrooms,” saysSteven Graham, assistant to Marc Johnson, dean of the university’sCollege of Agriculture. “Our existing facility is crammed into twobuildings and we have had a few problems with insects and there isalways a danger of fire or explosion.”

Design for the new facility has been awarded to Horst Terrill & Karstin Topeka, KS. Bids are still being submitted for contractor work,Graham says.Since 1996, Cargill Inc., a giant argriculture company based inMinnetonka, MN., has provided more than $600,000 to Kansas State insupport of other facilities and programs.

Cargill is the second-largest grain processor in the United States andhad fiscal 2000 earnings of $480 million on sales of $4.8 billion. Thisis Cargill’s largest contribution made outside of Minnesota. It was madein conjunction with Cargill’s Higher Education Initiative.