Leading the Way to a Sustainable Food Processing Industry in Idaho

The State Board of Education Higher Education Research Council (HERC) funded a three-year, $2.1M IGEM award led by Karen Humes. An interdisciplinary team from four colleges including Erik Coats, Armando McDonald and Jae Ryu, spearheaded the proposal, “Sustaining Idaho’s Food Industry with an Integrated Approach to Food, Energy, Water and Waste.” This project involves supporting Idaho dairies and food processors with management of waste streams, including the recovery of nutrients and valuable byproducts, assisting producers with “just right” applications of water and nutrients on crops, quantifying the connections between water and energy use in our food system and a variety of workforce development initiatives.