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Compeer partners with cancer research institute to establish Farm to Wellness fund

A farm credit cooperative is partnering with a leading cancer research center to establish a farm to wellness research fund.

CEO Jase Wagner tells Brownfield Compeer Financial is pledging $1 million to the Hormel Institute in Austin, Minnesota to support groundbreaking studies on the connections between agriculture, nutrition, and disease prevention.

“As you think about that connection between the farm and the health of our farmers, there’s a direct connection there. So we know that the food they grow supports the USA in many different ways, but this is a more direct and specific connection to health.”

The Hormel Institute is home to some of the world’s most cutting-edge cancer research technologies and expert scientists.

Compeer chief mission officer John Monson says the partnership has been years in the making.

“And we’d envisioned (back in 2012) where the concept of nutraceuticals is what we were actually talking about at the time, but we began to see there was synergy between the crops that we grow, the food that we eat, and the health benefits of it.”

Wagner says the impact of the food science research will benefit the broader agricultural industry and rural communities.