Salinas-based Taylor Farms has committed $2 million to a new plant science building at Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.
Cal Poly plans to open the new George Wurzel Plant Sciences Building in late 2025 and use it as the teaching and research hub of the school’s plant science complex.
The facility “will bring together multiple disciplines such as plant and crop sciences, agronomy and horticulture, plant breeding and physiology, plant protection, bioresource and agricultural engineering and reforestation under one roof to tackle California’s most pressing food and agriculture challenges,” the school said in a release.
Taylor Farms leader Bruce Taylor said the company was “honored to support the new Plant Sciences Complex at Cal Poly to help students gain access and insight into the latest technology during their studies in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.”
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“By partnering with other industry leaders, together we can help bring this facility to students and ensure our future leaders are ready to address complex issues,” he added.
Cal Poly broke ground on the six-acre development in November. In addition to the Wurzel building, the new complex will also include research and production greenhouses, an ancillary produce packing and cooling facility and a retail center. Bill Hendricks, the college’s interim dean, said the new facility “will enable us to train the next generation of agriculturalists and food innovators.”
According to the facility, the complex will be built in four phases, with the Wurzel building coming first. The second phase will include the greenhouse complex followed by the packing and cooling facility in the third phase and the store in the fourth.
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