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Green says UNL is ‘ideal location’ for ERS and NIFA headquarters

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is among the 136 entities nationwide that are vying to become the new headquarters of the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

UNL Chancellor Dr. Ronnie Green says the university partnered on its proposal with the state of Nebraska, the city of Lincoln and other interested parties. He thinks UNL’s Innovation Campus would be “an ideal location” for the two agencies.

“In terms of being located within the Heartland and epicenter of agriculture, in the region we’re in here in Nebraska—in the city of Lincoln and the arena of innovation and the Silicon Prairie that we’re in—and being in a town with the university here—all offer a perfect location in so many respects for them,” Green says.

“So we’re very compelled to believe that this is an ideal location for both of these agencies to be located, including attracting the talent to those agencies here in this part of the country,” he says.

Green, who once worked in Washington as a national program leader in USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, says moving the two agencies out of D.C. make sense.

“I think that the logic there is very sound, in thinking that these agencies could be located outside the Capitol region and be in a better place and be more effective—more operationally effective, in particular—and closer to who they serve. That all makes perfect sense to me.”

Two other Nebraska cities, Omaha and Sidney, have also submitted proposals to host ERS and NIFA. USDA says it will select the new location or locations by this January.

AUDIO: Dr. Ronnie Green