Exploring St. Louis as a Hub for Business, Community, and Opportunity – A Guest Blog by Mary Pat Sass

• December 17, 2024

St. Louis isn’t just a city—it’s a thriving ecosystem where innovation meets opportunity. Known for its rich history and iconic landmarks, it’s also a powerhouse of growth, collaboration, and community-driven success.

I recently had the chance to visit St. Louis with Missouri Partnership, an economic development organization dedicated to attracting businesses to the state. What I discovered went far beyond impressive statistics. I met passionate people driving real change and building successful futures. Their stories of choosing St. Louis as home for their businesses were nothing short of inspiring.

Join me as I dive into the heart of this vibrant city and highlight the businesses and nonprofits shaping its promising future. You might just see St. Louis in a whole new light!

Stop 1: Deli Star

Deli Star is a family-owned and operated food processor that moved to St. Louis after a fire destroyed their facility in Illinois. With the help of Missouri Partnership, they were able to find their new location. Being in St. Louis has opened the door to new opportunities for them. 

Deli Star is known for its fresh, never frozen, sous vide and deli meats. Food safety and product quality is the utmost priority. The sous vide process is not only extremely safe, but it helps hold in the flavor and moisture of the meat. I was able to try some of their products on my visit and learn about the sous vide cooking process. I was very impressed with the innovation they use to keep their products as safe and flavorful as possible. 

I toured their test kitchen and main office in downtown St. Louis. They were able to find a space for their production facility just down the road from their main office. I really enjoyed my visit to Deli Star and getting to hear the Siegel’s family story. It truly is a story of strength, flexibility and resilience since they found their new home in St. Louis. 

Stop 2: Bunge

Bunge is a global grain origination, processing, and ingredient company. They have 23,000 employees and 300+ facilities in 40+ countries, and their home base is right here in St. Louis Missouri. 

With a rich history, Bunge was founded more than 200 years ago in Amsterdam. It was a privately owned company up until 1999. They chose to relocate their headquarters from New York City to St. Louis so they could be closer to their production facilities and agriculture-based universities with more job candidates. Several of the employees at Bunge are farm kids and it makes sense that they would be located in America’s heartland. 

When Bunge moved from New York in 2019, several corporate employees followed and many stayed in the area when they didn’t think they would like it. Lower cost of living, lots of opportunities for entertainment, and activities in the St. Louis area is what kept them here. 

Stop 3: CoverCress

Field pennycress is a weed, but CoverCress has worked to turn that weed into a harvestable cover crop that can be processed for oil and animal feed. CoverCress got their start in St. Louis and has utilized resources from the Danforth Plant Science Center, Bio STL, and 39 North, which I was also lucky enough to visit on my trip to St. Louis.

CoverCress has worked to change the weed field pennycress to make it more suitable for planting as an actual cover crop. Their agronomist, Chris Aulbach, walked me through the steps they’ve taken to create the product they have today. Through advanced breeding and utilizing gene editing tools, they were able to improve yields, oil content, and several other characteristics of field pennycress. Now, they have a product that can fit into an existing corn/soybean rotation. It’s planted in the fall and harvested in the spring before planting of the corn or soybean crop. 

CoverCress started in St. Louis because of the many resources already available to agronomy startups. They utilized researchers and greenhouses at the Danforth Research center and still do today. They’ve also continued to use resources from BioSTL to help connect to their target markets. The infrastructure in St. Louis for startups is there to help them thrive and create a product that is applicable to the real world beyond the lab. 

Stop 4: KWS Gateway Research Center

KWS is a German based family-owned independent company that specializes in making plants better. They work to improve insect, disease and drought resistance as well as things like shelf-life and taste for vegetables. At their Gateway Research Center they develop the very beginnings of their new seed products. It takes 15 years from idea to actual product and at the Gateway Research Center they’re developing those products. I toured their facility and got to see their grow chambers and high tech equipment. It was very eye opening to understand just how much time and effort goes into getting a seed product into a farmer’s hands. 

KWS chose St. Louis as their home base for research in the US for many reasons. There are some other options on the coasts, but St. Louis had support for them from the Danforth Center where they still rent greenhouse space. They needed to have an area where the timezone difference would still overlap with part of the workday with their German homebase. St. Louis is also close to several colleges where they are able to recruit talented researchers to come work for them. 

Stop 5: Earthdance Organic Farms

Earthdance Organic Farms is a non-profit organic farm school that offers farm training and community outreach programs, including school gardens. The property the farm sits on has been a working farm since 1893 and it’s surrounded by city development. The family who owned it originally poured their heart and soul into organic farming and teaching others about it. Earthdance Farms bought the property and continued that passion along with allowing farmers just starting out to rent space to produce on their own plots of land. 

I was really impressed with all the community outreach and connection they have, especially their “pay what you can” mission to bring more local food to those who might not have access to it. Earthdance supplies local restaurants with fresh local produce and also sells at farmers markets. They have been able to connect people to healthy food and the land, along with helping to support their community. I loved learning about their mission and getting to tour their beautiful farm grounds. I even got to taste one of the bright red cherry tomatoes. The atmosphere at the farm was calming and it really seems like a place that helps to ground the surrounding community. 

Stop 6: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is the world’s largest independent plant research institute. It really is a world plant science hub and where plant technology begins. They are a non-profit organization that works to improve crops to grow more with less inputs and environmental impact. For example, they’re developing crops to improve water efficiency, pest resistance, decrease synthetic fertilizer needs, and improve nutritional value. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has infrastructure available that new agricultural tech startups need to research and develop their products, which is why several new agtech businesses come to St. Louis to get their start. 

Cover Cress got their start and still utilizes resources and greenhouses today at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. They have technology for gene editing, plant transformation, grow chambers and in-house experts in plant growth to take care of startup experiments.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, BRDG Park, the Helix Incubator, Bayer Crop Science, and the Yield Lab are all located within the 600-acre innovation district, 39 North– a district of scientists, startups, and companies as well as cutting-edge equipment and technology. 

Stop 7: 39 North-Happy Hour Event

39 North’s mindset is- agriculture is a team sport. They help new agriculture tech startups connect, find support, and amplify their businesses. I met some of the people at their happy hour event who are part of this agtech district and they shared with me some of the projects they’re working on. My mind was blown hearing about the projects. 

One example is Ostara. They’re a company that has created a phosphorus fertilizer that is 90% plant-available and is not water-soluble, which means it won’t leach into groundwater. The roots of the plant interact with the fertilizer, allowing the plants to uptake it. 

Another example is Edison Agrosciences. They’re working on making a natural rubber from sunflower leaves. We don’t produce any natural rubber domestically and they’ve made it their mission to create a sunflower variety with a higher concentration of natural rubber in its leaves. They hope to create a dual-purpose sunflower plant that can be harvested for its seeds and the natural rubber in the leaves. 

39 North is on a mission to help leverage the assets already in place in the St. Louis area for these agricultural startups to thrive. They work to help create, attract, and retain the most promising agtech innovators in the world. Dr. Rishi Maslia is the program director at 39 North. He moved to St. Louis from the west coast. Not only does he love working and developing businesses through 39 North but he loves the location in St. Louis. He said you can move to St. Louis and automatically double your salary because the cost of living is so much lower, without sacrificing the amenities of entertainment and much more that St. Louis has to offer. 

Stop 8: Bio STL

BioSTL is where ideas are tested and turned into solutions. Startups can bring their ideas and get access to testing equipment they would never be able to afford on their own. They test and validate their ideas and raise money from investors to create their own companies. BioSTL really helps to accommodate startups from conception through “graduation.” Both CoverCress and Ostara got their start at Bio STL.

Startups have access to a shared lab and other resources to help develop their ideas into businesses. BioSTL helps bridge the gap between these ideas and the end users, farmers, for example, so they can figure out if an idea someone has would be practical in the real world outside of the lab. It’s so cool to think about all of the ideas people are bringing here!

Last but definitely not least and I would be remiss if I didn’t share this.  St. Louis is known for being the birthplace of Gooey Butter Cake. Butter- say no more. A German baker back in the 1930s accidentally reversed the proportions of butter to flour in a cake recipe and the Gooey Butter Cake was born. Now, you can find Gooey Butter Cake in several bakeries and coffee shops across the city. Of course I couldn’t leave without getting a taste. Spoiler alert-It was delicious especially with a hot cup of coffee.

St. Louis has the community and the infrastructure for startups to thrive. It truly is a place where tradition and innovation come together. With a well-rounded community of agriculturists, and food scientists alike, It’s amazing to me all of the ideas that have been brought here and turned into successful businesses. 
Missouri is a special place where innovative businesses can come to thrive and families can settle down with a lower cost of living, without sacrificing recreational and cultural opportunities. I was impressed with my trip to St. Louis and my mind was blown at all the innovation happening here. I enjoyed the food, but I enjoyed the people even more. It was a welcoming community and I hope to come back to discover more in the future.

Mary Pat Sass is a passionate advocate for agriculture and an influential voice in the ag community. Hailing from Northern Illinois, Mary Pat combines her deep-rooted connection to Midwest farming with a strong corporate background in agricultural science and technology.