Soy Labs and Missouri Plant Science Center in Governor's Spotlight for Innovative and Economic Development

MEXICO, Mo., Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, whose job-creation strategy has focused on investing in science, technology and innovation, and encouraging and incentivizing entrepreneurship, selected Soy Labs (www.SoyLabs.com) and the Missouri Plant Science Center (www.mopsc.org) on Friday as the site to discuss the importance of the Missouri House passing the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act (MOSIRA) as part of the Made in Missouri Jobs Package. The Missouri Senate overwhelmingly passed the Made in Missouri Jobs Package with a strong, bipartisan vote on Wednesday, September 14.

Soy Labs, LLC, the premier ingredient supplier delivering high-quality soy ingredients to leading health supplement formulators and manufacturers in the nutrition industry, and managing tenant of the Missouri Plant Science Center (MPSC), is seen for its technological and entrepreneurial thinking that is positioned to spur innovation and economic development in Missouri.

While touring the facility with Ryan Schmidt, Soy Labs president and other Soy Labs executives, Nixon discussed how MOSIRA and the Made in Missouri Jobs Package will create jobs while ensuring continued fiscal discipline and accountability with taxpayer resources.

"By embracing technology and showing the partnership between higher education, technology and entrepreneurship, it clearly will give us the capacity for the long term future," Nixon said.

Soy Labs relocated from Fairfield, CA, last year, to be the managing tenant of the Missouri Plant Science Center, which is a joint venture of the Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC), the University of Missouri System and the city of Mexico, Mo.

The 25,000 square-foot Missouri Plant Science Center is a shared-use facility where researchers work alongside business and industry experts in a multi-disciplinary environment. The center facilitates the collaboration between scientific and entrepreneurial minds to turn the latest research into functional real-world applications and consumer goods.

Soy Labs recently announced a new joint research and development partnership with Missouri-based Reliv International, a direct selling company that develops, manufactures and markets nutritional products that promote optimal health and will provide greater access to the latest soy, and plant biotechnology research.

"This is a first step toward the Missouri Plant Science Center's goal to strengthen the state's biotechnology industry, create jobs and improve Missouri's global economic competitiveness," Schmidt said.

"Reliv attended the Missouri Plant Science Center last Friday, to support Gov. Nixon's economic development efforts," said Ryan Montgomery, Reliv's executive vice president of worldwide sales.

"Reliv's partnership with Soy Labs is an outgrowth of those efforts in the areas of nutritional science and technology. Our partnership will give Reliv the most advanced and effective soy ingredients on the market," Montgomery added.

Soy Labs partnering institutions have received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Institute for Cancer Research, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council as well as other organizations.

As one of the key pillars of the Made in Missouri Jobs Package, MOSIRA would create a funding source to spark growth in research and technology enterprises by capturing a small percentage of the growth in state revenue over a base year from a designated group of Missouri science and innovation companies.

The Missouri Technology Corporation will administer the MOSIRA funds. MTC will reinvest the MOSIRA funding through loans and other means to generate further economic growth in the science and innovation industry sectors, with emphasis on biotechnology and life sciences. Funding will be reinvested in a wide range of programs designed to create jobs, nurture start-ups, and bring science and technology companies to the state.

"Here in Missouri, we must keep our economy moving forward by embracing science and technology and investing in research and development," said Nixon.

This release was issued on behalf of the above organization by Send2Press(R), a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com

SOURCE Soy Labs