Ph.D. Project: Alternative Biomass Resources for Sustainable Livestock Production (funded, $30,000 annually for 4 years)

Cultivating and processing animal feed contributes a disproportionate share of the resource and environmental impacts of livestock production. Social license for the livestock sector will also likely be increasingly predicated on its ability to reduce direct competition for arable land and human-edible feed resources. This four year, funded Ph.D. project will answer this challenge by:

1. Identifying and mapping the availability of alternative feed resources for the poultry industry in Canada, including (for example), single-cell proteins from forest industry residues, insects meals, and food waste-to-feed products;
2. Undertaking detailed environmental life cycle assessment and techno-economic assessments of each feed resource pathway, and
3. Assessing their potential for contributing to sustainable poultry production based on a combination of environmental, economic, and nutritional objectives and constraints.

Project outputs will include a Ph.D. dissertation, presentation of results at poultry industry association professional meetings, conference presentations, and submission of study results for publication in peer-reviewed venues.

This project will begin in September 2022.