This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Jefferson County Administrator Michael Luckey.
The podcast focuses on local economic development efforts and business investments, including the county’s growing Food and Beverage Innovation Campus that recently landed manufacturer Onego Bio as its latest tenant.
The food ingredient company announced in March that it would purchase 25.9 acres at the site for $777,000, for use as its “flagship” manufacturing facility. The company will be making a fermentation-based egg protein powder there, with projected production capacity equal to 6 million laying hens. The plant is expected to begin operating in 2028.
Luckey shares some insights about the business and how it aims to supply the food production industry with its “bioalbumen” product.
“Looking at some of the news that we have on volatility of egg prices, specifically related to avian influenza and other reasons, having an ability to have a stable, plant-based, fermentation-based egg white replacement essentially will be very, very crucial in food supply chain stability,” he said.
The Food and Beverage Innovation Campus was built on former farmland that was owned by the county for more than 150 years, Luckey explains. County leadership had spent years considering development possibilities for the greenfield site, which he notes is attractive to many developers.
The county’s economic development team identified four main strengths to focus the campus on: food and beverage, agribusiness, advanced manufacturing and biohealth.
“So we made the decision to go out and start looking at ways we could attract businesses in those areas,” Luckey said.
Soy sauce manufacturer Kikkoman purchased the anchor parcel for the campus last year and “has driven a lot of development” in the area, he added.
“The idea again is to build on that same industry hub of food and beverage manufacturing, locate some people where they might be able to use some of the same products, economies of scale, share technologies and really make this a hub and innovation campus,” he said.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
