What links Sussex and plant-based vaccines ?

It’s a fascinating story of turnarounds. A German applied-research institute born of the devastation of World War II has established a modern research facility in Delaware, where it uses a wild tobacco variety – among the last plants on earth anyone associates with health – to develop a new type of vaccine to fight diseases from malaria and yellow fever to anthrax and Ebola.

With a boost from Delaware taxpayers, Fraunhofer USA has operated a nonprofit facility in Newark for years, with a major expansion in 2010. Officials say state investment has yielded returns, and as home to a world-class research facility, Delaware is seen as a welcoming location for science-based businesses.Now Fraunhofer’s new expansion, a for-profit company, is on the horizon.

Company officials are not yet saying where the plant will be located, but Sussex County is in the mix. And why not?

Sussex County has plenty of space for Fraunhofer’s greenhouses, and our strong farm community is familiar with technology the company will use.

But, with many high-tech companies attracting a workforce that’s at home in big urban areas, why would this high-tech, world-class company choose to locate in Sussex County?

Fraunhofer executive director in Newark Vidadi Yusibov put it this way, “It’s a business decision. But it would be nice being close to the beach.”

Sussex beaches are the crown jewel of Delaware’s tourism economy, but the same beaches, parks and trails that bring visitors and retirees are also attractive to a high-tech force that works hard, plays hard and demands a high quality of life.

Our natural resources are the driver of our economy. If Sussex wants to attract not only housing and low-paid retail development but also new, cutting-edge industry and the spinoffs it spawns, it’s absolutely critical to protect the beaches, bays, marsh, waterways and forest that bring people here in the first place.

In what could well be another turnaround, if officials seriously protect the future of our natural resources, Sussex would be well placed to become a hub for new ideas and new technology.