Scratching the surface: UGA researchers study how free-range chickens influence farm sustainability
Averi Caldwell
Researchers in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are using molecular genetics to determine how pastured and free-range chickens influence the ecosystem on farms where crops and livestock are raised together.
Supported by a $749,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, entomology doctoral student Sofia Varriano and her thesis advisor, agroecologist and systems biology Professor Bill Snyder, are testing the promise of integrated crop-livestock agriculture to increase the sustainability of smaller farms.
“We’re interested in this group of farmers that have livestock and crop production within the same farms for their operation. Nowadays we call that integrated crop-livestock agriculture, but 100 years ago what did we call that? We called it farming,” Snyder said. “Every farm, pretty much everywhere in the world, had that model. We’re interested in whether there are aspects of that farming approach that can be useful in a modern setting.”
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