Leaders of Minnesota farm country on Monday unveiled a new name created to help promote the region: The GreenSeam.

The name, announced at a news conference attended by about 500 people in Mankato, is designed to help identify and market the sprawling farm economy of southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, a region that boasts national leadership in soybean and pork production, along with corn, ethanol plants, agriculture research, transportation, manufacturing and ag technology companies.

Some two years in the making, the naming project was the work of the Mankato chamber of commerce, known as Greater Mankato Growth.

"Like other premier industry clusters in the United States, such as Silicon Valley or the Research Triangle, if you are a person or a business that finds value in being connected to the ag business industry then the GreenSeam is not only where you ought to be, but need to be," said Jonathan Zierdt, president & CEO of Greater Mankato Growth Inc.

More information about the program is available at greenseam.org.

Matt McKinney