The Cargill grain elevator directly across from the Arch on the Illinois bank of the Mississippi River makes some people grumpy. They see it as a blight on the river vista as they gaze across the river from downtown St. Louis. They think it detracts from the elegant lines of the Gateway Arch and landscaped grounds.

It never bothered me. 

When I look at the grain elevator, I see agriculture at work in the heart of the American heartland. I see it as a central part of the story that the Gateway Arch and Jefferson National Expansion Memorial are intended to symbolize, interpret and celebrate.

It’s the part with the most promise for the national park revitalization now underway.

Thomas Jefferson was an agriculturalist of historic proportions. He studied botany and pioneered crop rotation and other agricultural innovations. He dispatched Meriwether Lewis and William Clark from St. Louis on what was, in large part, a scientific mission that included cataloging the Louisiana Territory’s natural resources.

St. Louis was a point of embarkation for Americans who settled the West, but it went from gateway to a marketplace and transit/distribution center as the Midwest’s food belt became ever more productive.

St. Louis has been rooted in this agricultural tradition. Agribusiness — including food production, beverage manufacturing, farm products and supplies, animal and pet food manufacturing and agricultural transportation — remains a major staple of the local economy.

St. Louis also is home to some of the world’s leading plant, life-sciences and agricultural research institutions.

When U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan visited here in May, he said “the strength that St. Louis has in its university and medical assets and the connection to food production more broadly is a great opportunity.”

As the city and the National Park Service consider proposals to enhance the Arch grounds, agriculture should get more than a passing nod.

All five finalists in the City+Arch+River 2015 International Design Competition considered agriculture when suggesting how to expand the national park to the Illinois riverfront.

One team proposed transforming Malcom W. Martin Memorial Park on the East St. Louis riverfront into a “Center for Agricultural and Well-Being,” with “experimental fields and greenhouses that display healthy food production.” Other teams pointed to water management, wetland reserves, urban gardens, nurseries and research facilities.

These are concepts, not comprehensive plans. But they suggest a range of possibilities whose promise is immense, whichever team wins the competition.

There are plenty of sources at hand for excellent advice.

The Missouri Botanical Garden has unsurpassed experience and expertise in creating horticultural displays that can help visitors understand the history of American agricultural and its promise for the future.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an agricultural research powerhouse. Could it be enticed to become a major presence in the shadow of the Arch as part of the national park’s expansion into Illinois?

It could collaborate with the St. Louis plant science industry and the Park Service to create a national research and demonstration center for scientific advances in food production. Such a center could promote entrepreneurship and regional investment and employment in  related industries, including in East St. Louis, where the expanded park would be situated.

The Arch project is on a fast track. These conversations should start now.