<p style="text-indent:0px; line-height:12px;"><span style="font-weight:bold;line-height:130%">Columbus, OH</span><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">By Eric Anderson<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">3.18.13</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>As the US economy continues to slowly recover, the nation’s agbioscience industries are taking off, most notably in the South, according to a recent report.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Agbioscience industries encompass a broad swath of development, production and value-added use of plants and animals for food, health, fuel and industrial applications.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">According to a Battelle study released today, “Impact and Innovation: Agbioscience in the Southern United States,” agriculture, forestry and fisheries production generate a total of $240 billion in regional economic activity within the Southern region and supports over 2.2 million jobs with labor income totaling $62 billion. According to the study, agbioscience is vital to the country’s sustainable global and domestic economic future, with the Southern leading the way in driving that activity<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “The current and future importance of the agbiosciences is hard to overstate,” said Simon Tripp, a co-author of the report. “For instance, this science and industry sector is fundamental to the survival of the world’s expanding population, the food security of our nation and the health of our population.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Dr. Mike Walden, an N.C. Cooperative Extension Service economist and William Neal Reynolds Professor at North Carolina State University, has determined that North Carolina agriculture and agribusiness account for $71.6 billion of the state’s $425 billion gross state product and 638,000 of North Carolina’s 3.8 million jobs.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/news-center/perspectives/agbiosciences-drive-economic-growth-job-creation-in-the-southern-u-s/" target="_new">Agbioscience Update</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
