Spirit Award Will Remind Me What’s At Stake

Nineteen people work at AgraForm, a chemical processing/packaging plant in south St. Louis. They have jobs and contracts because Doug Baskett and his partners bought the former Bayer CropScience manufacturing plant and started a new company. They sell most of their product to Bayer, but they have ambitious plans to expand.

Their faith in themselves and in the Carondelet neighborhood was what I mentioned to today when I recognized AgraForm with the Mayor's Spirit of St. Louis Award. They are the entrepreneurs who give our City its economic energy. Getting them open required the assistance of several agencies of government. It is a calculated investment in our future.

I will keep AgraForm (and dozens of growing companies just like it) firmly in mind next week when I am speaking to officials in China about their support for a new hub in St. Louis that will open new markets for St. Louis and Midwestern products.