Mason City man says town could become “research center for new discoveries in medicine” (video)

MASON CITY – A Mason City man says an economic development opportunity is within reach for Mason City and the town could become “research center for new discoveries in medicine”.

Stuart Seible says in a video he sent to NIT that “plants” hold unknown chemicals that could cure cancer, and they are growing right here in Mason City. He suggests that Mason City leaders should work to have these plants growing in this area harvested and analyzed, leading to what he thinks might be “new discoveries in medicine”.

Seible was a vocal opponent of the Prestage Foods pork plant and feels that the city should pursue other economic development opportunities – like this one.  He says Mason City has something found nowhere else in the world – “prairie pothole marshland.”

In this marshland, “there are hundreds of plants that have had little to no research done on them – and who knows what discoveries there are to be made with these plants. No one will ever know unless the research gets done. And that’s where Mason City could get involved.”

Seible suggests Mason City’s leaders should gain the “foresight and the ambition” to make Mason City “a research center for new discoveries in medicine” or at least provide the plants to other researchers to analyze to find cures for a range of diseases he listed, including cancer, alzheimers, sickle cell anemia, AIDS, diabetes, and parkinson’s.

“We are in the perfect location for extracting chemicals from these plants.  We could do the research on these plants,” he said.

Under the leadership of local elected leaders on the city council and county supervisors, a  board should be formed, Seible says, with knowledgable citizens (“no cronies”) to research this idea.