As the world\u2019s population grows, it is becoming more and more important to develop more environmentally and economically sustainable ways of producing food.<\/p>\n
As part of an ongoing $10 million grant<\/a> from the USDA, led by Kumar Venkitanarayanan, CAHNR <\/a>senior associate dean of research and graduate education and professor of animal science, Abhinav Upadhyay, associate professor of animal science, has developed a course to teach the next generation of agricultural workers and researchers about sustainable poultry production.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are aiming to educate the next generation workforce to understand that food production is important but at the same time it should not come at the cost of losing our planet,\u201d Upadhyay says.<\/p>\n The course is designed as a follow-up to Upadhyay\u2019s longstanding course on the fundamentals of poultry science. The new course was offered for the first time in fall 2024.<\/p>\n Students are introduced to the basic tenets of sustainability, why it is important, and why the scientific community is interested in making agriculture reducing the impact of agriculture on the environment now.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the scientific world, there is a lot of discussion as to how are we going to provide this human population with nutritious food that is also sustainable,\u201d Upadhyay says. \u201cBecause what we cannot do is have an intensive farming model where we destroy forests or don\u2019t care about the industry\u2019s implications on climate.\u201d<\/p>\n The course then moves into more specific information on raising poultry more sustainably and the specific challenges this industry faces in terms of human, animal, and environmental health.<\/p>\n For the final project in the course, students work in groups to create a proposal for their own sustainable poultry production research project.<\/p>\n Through this assignment, students get to experience how research proposals are actually evaluated in the professional scientific world with their peers serving as anonymized reviewers.<\/p>\n \u201cThese students don\u2019t have a lot of research experience,\u201d Upadhyay says. \u201cBut it was still very impressive to see how they could crosslink the ideas that were discussed in the course and then come up with a project of their own.\u201d<\/p>\n The course had 12 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the fall. It will be offered again in fall 2025. The course is open to all UConn students.<\/p>\n \u201cI was happy to see that the first time we introduced this course, it has significant interest among graduate and undergraduate students,\u201d Upadhyay says.<\/p>\n Mackenzie Connors \u201825 (CAHNR) is one undergraduate student who took the course in the fall.<\/p>\n Connors says she valued how the course exposed her to new information not just about poultry sustainability, but also the grant writing process, even as she plans to attend veterinary school after graduation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt taught me a lot about sustainable poultry and also about writing grants,\u201d Mackenzie says. \u201cFor somebody who will do that in the future, that is a very, very good course. And even if you\u2019re not planning to take that career path, it\u2019s good exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n Upadhyay and his colleagues at Appalachian State University, University of Minnesota, and University of Arkansas published an article in Poultry Science<\/a>, highlighting the course.<\/p>\n \u201cThe aim of the research article was to share with the entire global scientific community what we are doing,\u201d Upadhyay. \u201cWe are expecting, in the future when people read this article, they will reach out to us for potential collaborations.\u201d<\/p>\n Upadhyay will continue to offer the course at UConn and eventually share it with other universities as an online course. The course will be consistently updated to reflect new research and regulations related to sustainable poultry production.<\/p>\n \u201cIn order to develop a strong workforce in the U.S. we are developing this course and UConn is at the crux of it,\u201d Upadhyay says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on\u00a0<\/em>Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n