They looked like plain, boring potato plants, although the bright green leaves were a pleasant sight this time of year.

But these potatoes are like no others in the world.

They make medicine.

Bob Britt beamed as he took guests into the laboratory at PlantPharm BioMed on Woolsey Street in Delavan.

“This is the farm of the future,” Britt said.

In other words, it is “the world’s leader in plant-derived biomanufacturing.”

That’s the business of using living tissue to make medicine. Most often, companies use yeasts, insects, fish or mammalian tissue, according to PlantPharm literature.

Britt has worked in agribusiness for 35 years, mostly in the hybrid seed business. Today, his job is a hybrid—commercial agriculture married the pharmaceutical industry.

“We formed PlantPharm specifically for taking the product into the marketplace,” Britt said. “We already know what we’re doing on the agriculture end.”

Britt and his partners at PlantPharm have genetically engineered the plants to create the hepatitis B vaccine. The production method will make a cheaper, more stable hepatitis B vaccine than is available on the market, and the Delavan company is poised to be the first to make it happen, Britt said.

A Richland Center couple has been named one of four national Outstanding Young Farmers by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. Ryan and Michelle Keller received the honor at a weekend event in Louisville.

The Kellers are partners in the Junction View Dairy, which has about 900 Holstein cows and 1,800 acres for crops. The candidates are judged on their agricultural careers, soil-and-water conservation practices, and civic contributions.

Ron Seely

The state Department of Natural Resources has approved a permit that will allow the Rosendale Dairy, near Ripon in Fond du Lac County, to expand from 4,000 to 8,000 cows, which would make it the largest of the state’s so-called factory farms.

With 8,000 cows, the farm will produce more than 92 million gallons of manure a year, making it the state’s third largest producer of waste, behind Milwaukee and Madison, according to the DNR. Under the modified permit approved by the agency Friday, the farm will have to expand the acreage on which manure will be spread from 4,000 to 12,000 acres.

The DNR also required the farm to meet some requirements beyond standards in the law that govern the operation of such large-scale farms. For example, Rosendale Dairy will not be allowed to spread manure within 200 feet of private wells, even though the law calls only for a 100-foot buffer.

MILWAUKEE (AP) - A huge flower known for its gag-inducing odor has started blooming at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The exotic flower is called a titan arum. But it's better known as a corpse flower because it gives off an odor of rotting flesh.

The stinky smell helps it attract carrion beetles and sweat bees in its native rain forests of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

WISN-TV reports that the seven-foot-tall flower started blooming - and reeking - over the weekend.

Corpse flowers can bloom as infrequently as once every 15 years, and then only for a matter of days. They can weigh as much as 170 pounds, reach nine feet in height and open to a diameter of three or four feet.

• Click here to see a live Web cam of the flower.