MOSCOW, ID — The University of Idaho will host a grand opening for its new Meat Science and Innovation Center Honoring Ron Richard on Friday, April 10.
The 12,750-square-foot facility, part of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, is a $17.5 million project designed to expand class sizes, research opportunities and production capacity. The building replaces an older facility constructed in the 1960s and includes dedicated spaces that allow multiple operations to run at the same time.
University officials said the center will continue serving as one of the few U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected plants available to small-scale ranchers in northern Idaho for beef processing. It is also intended to support workforce training for meat processing jobs across the state.
The facility is named in honor of the late Ron Richard, a longtime manager of Vandal Brand Meats who helped establish the program’s reputation. The university reports the program generates more than $325,000 in annual sales and maintains a 100% job placement rate for graduates in the meat industry and related fields.
The event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon at 775 Perimeter Drive in Moscow. Several university leaders and industry representatives are expected to speak, and media availability will follow the program.
