MU to offer wine science degree
Feb. 22, 2008
Starting next fall, MU will join the few universities that offer classes on how to harvest and manufacture wine.
MU’s food science department is working to develop an enology emphasis for students majoring in either food or plant science, according to a College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources news release.
Courses will be gradually phased in through several years but the goal is freshman who enroll at MU in the Fall 2008 Semester could complete the sequence.
Food science professor Ingolf Gruen said the goal of this emphasis is to teach and train students about the inner workings of wineries. He said he hopes this will create a work force for the industry.
“We want to develop rural areas and keep workers here,” he said.
Gruen said he hopes the emphasis will reverse a shortage of trained personnel.
Right now, universities offering enology degrees or emphases include California State University-Fresno, the University of California-Davis, Washington State University and Cornell University, Gruen said.
He said he would like to see the number of Missouri native growers increase.
He said he is confident that offering students an enology program would double the number of undergraduates in the food science department.
In time, Gruen hopes the program will be housed in a building of its own, which would to house a winery and have a small vineyard outside, he said.
Jim Anderson, the director of the Missouri Wine and Grape Board, said the Missouri wine industry has doubled in the last 10 years.
As it continues to expand, the market for young local growers and producers is increasing as well, he said.
The state is home to more than 75 wineries that use 1,400 acres of land and generated $701 million in 2007, he said.
“This is quite an impact for an industry our size,” he said.
Missouri was ranked second in the nation for wine production before prohibition, Anderson said.
The state’s wine industry, more than 165 years old, saw a rebirth of wine production in the 1960’s after the repeal of prohibition.
From 2005 to 2006, Missouri sold 958,360 gallons of wine and ranked 11th nationally, according to statistics the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Anderson said wineries also create the framework for tourism clusters.
“Wineries affect us in more ways than your average farm,” Anderson said.
Anderson said areas with wineries become a destination spot, paving the way for other businesses like bed and breakfasts, restaurants and state parks to move into an area.
Anderson said wineries are increasing in number all across the nation. There are now more than 5,000 wineries nationwide.
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