Marvin Baker/MDN
Holly Mawby, director of the Minot State University-Bottineau Entrepreneurial Center for Horticulture, tends to some bean plants in a campus greenhouse March 26. Mawby, who began her job in January, hopes to build a thriving, locally grown industry in North Dakota in the next 10 years.

State producers could benefit from demand for homegrown produce

By MARVIN BAKER, Staff Writer mbaker@minotdailynews.com

BOTTINEAU – Local and organic product sales have exploded nationwide in recent years and now Holly Mawby wants to see the benefits of that phenomenon in North Dakota.

Mawby, director of the newly formed Minot State University-Bottineau Entrepreneurial Center for Horticulture, is building the center from the ground up and believes locally grown food could become a thriving commercial industry in the state in the next 10 years.

Mawby knows she has a lot of work to do to make that happen.

First, she has to build the infrastructure at the center. Then, she will be tagged with raising matching grant funding, and finally, Mawby will get producers on board who will grow this emerging industry.