Cheerios manufacturer General Mills and South Dakota State University have opened a state-of-the-art oat variety development lab on campus focused on advancing the sustainability and quality of oats in the US.
“Our company has made a public commitment to source 100 percent of our oats by 2020 from growing regions that demonstrate continuous improvement against industry-based environmental metrics,” says Jim Kirkwood, vice president and chief science and technology development officer at General Mills. “Having a venerable institution like SDSU as a partner will allow us to do more innovative oat breeding research in the labs and fields – and get us to that goal.”