Amarillo Sets Sights on Becoming the Silicon Valley of Agriculture

AMARILLO, Texas, May 19, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Amarillo is a center of production for the nation's beef and dairy industries, and a group of area business leaders plans to leverage the region's unique industry influence and perspective in a collaborative movement to transform the city into a global food hub. 

The newly established Regional Accelerator and New Growth Engine (RANGE), which launched to the public today, will lay the framework for Amarillo to become a world leader in facilitating research, developing programs and creating technology that addresses present and future challenges in the beef, dairy and crop-production industries.

"We envision an Amarillo that's as central to the beef and dairy industry as Silicon Valley is to the technology industry, and we'll incubate technology, innovation and capital to grow and attract uniquely aligned business and talent to the region," Matt Garner, Ph.D., executive director of the RANGE, said.

To meet their goal, the RANGE, a 501(c)(6) organization, will train and retain top talent in Amarillo and encourage collaboration between the business sectors that intersect with agriculture production, such as manufacturing, research and technology. 

"Global demand for dietary protein will increase 75 percent by the year 2050," Garner said. "By becoming a creator and net exporter of technological innovations, the RANGE will address industry challenges, leverage our strengths, and create new opportunities to attract businesses." 

Laura Street, one of the Amarillo leaders behind the initiative, explained the RANGE's unique collaborative model will result in transformative synergy between producers, industry partners and academic institutions to identify and solve global food supply chain issues. 

"The RANGE will create a multi-industry ecosystem that encourages protein-related production, research and innovation," Street said. "We envision a global food hub that fortifies the food supply chain while transforming the future economic growth of our region."

The endeavor has had a promising start, piloting programs and creating new industry partnerships. Recent projects the RANGE supported include research into livestock varieties that require less water to help producers adapt to fluctuating water availability and an effort to harness developments in asset tracking technology by developing beacons to better manage herds with up-to-the-minute insights into every animal. 

Street pointed to recent food supply chain disruptions during and since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to stress the importance of facilitating innovation that grows and strengthens the food supply.

"We all remember walking into our grocery stores a few years ago and finding meat and dairy products emptied from the shelves," Street said. "The RANGE will employ the industrial, scientific, technological and academic expertise of the broader food animal production sector in Amarillo to solve these problems for the world."

Contact [email protected] for more information about collaborating with the RANGE and its integrated partners.

Source: The RANGE