News Release Distributed 07/16/10
The LSU AgCenter has been named as a recipient of one of 22 U.S. Department of Agriculture grants supporting agricultural market research and demonstration projects.
The AgCenter award will be used to identify high-potential, wood-based bioenergy business options that can be integrated into business models of forest landowners and wood product manufacturers and distributors in Louisiana, said Richard Vlosky, who will head the Louisiana program.
In addition to Vlosky, who is director of the LSU AgCenter’s Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, the project will include Ramesh Kolluru and Mark Smith with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette-Center for Business and Information Technologies and Charles D’Agostino with the LSU Louisiana Business and Technology Center.
USDA awarded 22 matching grants totaling more than $1.3 million to 18 states under the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program. The projects will explore new and innovative approaches to marketing U.S. food and agricultural products and to improve the efficiency and performance of the marketing system.
The grants focus on developing agricultural marketing strategies for an array of projects including eight local/regional food projects, two bioenergy projects, a farm-to-school project and a food safety for direct marketers project.
The grant program funds a wide range of applied research projects that address barriers, challenges and opportunities in marketing, transporting and distributing U.S. food and agricultural products domestically and internationally, according to USDA officials.
Rick Bogren