UM Board of Curators names laboratory after former Sen. Blunt

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved to name a soil testing and research laboratory after former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, according to a Tuesday press release.

The Roy Blunt Soil Testing and Research Laboratory will be at the Fisher Delta Research, Extension and Education Center in Portageville, Missouri, the release states. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Friday, April 5.

Blunt represented Missouri in the Senate from 2011-23 and was in the U.S. House from 1997-2011. The Board of Curators previously named the NextGen Precision Health Building in Columbia after Blunt.

“Supported by $4.6 million in funding from the U. S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, the state of Missouri and the Fisher Delta FD-REEC, this state-of-the-art laboratory will help advance research and innovation in all the agricultural research programs currently housed at the center,” the release states.

The release states that the project will offer technologically advanced soil sample and water and plant-tissue testing. It will also provide lab space to house the rice production and entomology research programs while accommodating additional greenhouse operations, the release states.