As governor of Washington, Christine Gregoire understands what registers with the voters and taxpayers of her state. In a speech Friday on the Washington State University campus in Pullman, she stressed the economic payback to be expected from investments in such projects as construction of the new Plant Bio Sciences building she was there to dedicate.

But WSU’s tradition of world-class agricultural research reaches far beyond the state’s borders. And to the credit of the university and a long list of individual faculty members, much of the benefit derived from that work is measured in terms of lives improved in Third World countries.

“The world can produce enough food for its population for a good many years into the future, provided that we and others who have the know-how can help those other nations that have the resources but lack the know-how to transform their traditional subsistence agriculture into a productive, commercial type of agriculture,” said Lowell Rasumssen upon his retirement 30 years ago as associate director of WSU’s Agricultural Research Center.

That approach neither conflicts with nor takes anything away from the 21st century, global-economy outlook Gregoire reflected last week: “Because Washington State stands on one of the world’s premier intersections between agriculture, research, technology and trade, we have the right stuff to lead in these industries.”

There is a role for WSU to play both in the Washington state agribusiness economy and in the world hunger picture. Three days before the governor’s appearance on campus, Spokesman-Review reporter Shawn Vestal related the accomplishments of a WSU research team led by B.W. “Joe” Poovaiah. They have discovered the way to manipulate genes and control plant size, producing dwarf varieties that are cheaper and easier to grow in hunger-stricken countries.

The success of Poovaiah and his colleagues is reminiscent of the pioneering work done at WSU in the 1960s by Orville Vogel, who developed wheat strains subsequently used by Norman Borlaug to launch the “Green Revolution” that won him the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize.

Another acclaimed researcher, Clarence A. Ryan, the first WSU faculty member elected to the National Academy of Sciences, captured attention in the 1990s with his work to harness a plant’s natural defenses to ward off pests, thus reducing reliance on chemicals.

Ryan spent 20 years coming up with his discovery. Similarly, Poovaiah has been studying calcium’s role as a plant messenger for more than three decades. World-changing advancement doesn’t happen overnight.

And while WSU researchers at least as far back as Vogel have lamented the difficulty of acquiring adequate research funding, the land-grant university in the Palouse has sustained a commitment to important research, as the records of Vogel, Ryan, Poovaiah and others demonstrate.

If that work helps to shore up Washington’s economy, great. If it improves life around the world at the same time, so much the better.