El Paso—September 16, 2013

El Paso, located approximately 30 miles east of Peoria, is a small town in Woodford County that is home to three industrial employers. Our first stop, American Buildings, one of the largest and most experienced manufacturers of custom engineered steel building systems. We donned our hard hats and safety glasses, and then spent time touring the factory. Our expert guides, showed us why American is an industry leader in design flexibility, quality and value. At our next stop, just a mile down the road, we went behind the scenes at the DuPont plant. Their goal is to create answers in insect, weed and disease control that help growers improve productivity and sustainability of their crops and farming operations. We learned that all of their crop protection is now dry, versus the liquid formulas used previously. This has had quite an impact on manufacturing, packaging and shipping processes. Our third and final stop was Beck’s Hybrid, which has only been located in El Paso for the past 18 months. Our guide gave us the history of the family-owned seed company, which is based in Atlanta, Indiana. He gave us an overview of the plans to start-up this satellite operation in El Paso. We learned about seed hybrids, GMO and more. We even stopped to check out Beck’s harvesting plant, watching the corn slide down the conveyor belt and get ready for processing. OLLI thanks all three of our wonderful hosts for giving us insights into the industries in El Paso.