Monsanto to join biotech campus

Monsanto to join biotech campus

STAFF WRITER ALAN M. WOLF

Agriculture giant Monsanto plans to study ways to improve the taste and nutrition of fruits and vegetables at a burgeoning biotech campus in Kannapolis.

Company officials and the billionaire behind the N.C. Research Campus, Dole Food Chairman David Murdock, announced the news Thursday morning in Kannapolis.

Starting in June, the company will have 10 to 12 employees working in about 9,000 square feet of lab and office space on the campus and two or three visiting Monsanto scientists each year.


Monsanto joins other tenants at the campus, which opened in 2008, including N.C. State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, Red Hat and more. The 350-acre campus, built at the site of a former textile mill, is north of Charlotte and about 150 miles west of Raleigh.

But the campus has struggled to attract big-name corporate tenants. Soda and food giant PepsiCo had considered occupying a lab to study ways to make its products more healthful, but the company backed out last year due to the recession.