Aghicultuhe
Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Office of the Vice President, Dean, and Director College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station
102 Agricultural Hall Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078-6015
405-744-2474 Fax: 405-744-2480
August 15, 2017
The Honorable Scott Pruitt Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency USEPA Headquarters William Jefferson Clinton Building 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Mail Code: 1101A Washington, DC 20460
Dear Administrator Pruitt,
It was good to see you a few weeks ago when you held the round table on WOTUS at the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives. I appreciate your efforts to engage stakeholders in these important policy decisions and the opportunity to participate. I had asked Dr. Shannon Ferrell from our Agricultural Economics faculty to prepare remarks on the WOTUS policy considerations. I trust those were helpful.
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the G7 Environment Ministers conference in June. I found it to be helpful to learn from other universities in the G7 countries about their efforts to adopt more sustainable practices and to advance sustainability studies in their programs. The insights will be helpful to us as we develop our programs at Oklahoma State, and hopefully our experiences were helpful to the other participants.
I would like to share with you some information about one of our alumni whom we will be honoring as a Distinguished Alumnus this fall, and who would appreciate the opportunity to visit with you about his business and its interactions with the EPA.
Dr. Bill Lingren is one of the many OSU graduates who has contributed to the strength of Oklahoma's economy. He started and grew a successful company in California, and then chose to bring it home to Oklahoma in 2002, where it's been helping to advance good environmental stewardship and provide good jobs to Oklahomans.
Bill's company, Trece, Inc.--which operates in Adair and Chelsea--develops, manufactures and markets state-of-the-art insect monitoring and control systems based on pheromones and other semiochemicals that help farmers protect crops in the United States and worldwide.
The products he sells provide returns that benefit employees and communities right here in Oklahoma--no matter if those products are sold in the United States or overseas.
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That's why I was particularly taken by an article Bill recently published in the Tulsa World that detailed how a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development resulted in the purchase of tens of thousands of units of Oklahoma-made Trece products.
For that project, Trece partnered with CultiyMing New Frontiers in Agriculture--an international agricultural development organization that carries out USAID initiatives---to implement a program in the Republic of Georgia aimed at protecting crops from a serious insect infestation. The program helped prevent the total destruction of the nation's important hazelnut cash crop.
The beauty of that international aid effort is that Georgian smallholder farmers got the products they needed--products developed and manufactured in Oklahoma--to protect their livelihoods, and Oklahoma workers in two rural communities benefited from a boost in Trece's business. That additional trade is especially important to economies in rural parts of the state, where people often have to commute long distances to obtain good-paying jobs. Companies like Trece help to provide a financial anchor for these rural communities.
I'd encourage you to take a look at Bill's article (please see the link below) to see how this particular international development initiative helped further secure job opportunities in Adair and Chelsea. I think you'll find it an interesting read.
I met Bill several years ago and was fascinated with the innovation that forms the basis of his company's success. I would encourage you to visit with Bill, ideally at the Trece headquarters in Adair, and/or at your office in Washington, DC. Can you let me or Bill know if this is an option?
Best regards,
Thomas G. Coon Vice-President, Agricultural Programs
cc: Mr. Bill Lingren, President of Trece Incorporated
Tulsa World Op-Ed link:
http://www,tulsaBtorld,CQm/oBinign/readeipfora
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