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Research Priority:

Ensuring a nutritious, sustainable source of food for present and future generations of humans and animals is a primary focus of my research.

This involves nutritional research with a focus on balanced feed formulation, nutritional modeling and micro-components of the diet (fatty acids, antinutrients, bioactives). 

My group and I study a number of novel feed ingredients and their application to animal diets.

What inspires you to do this work?

Agriculture is how we feed our world. Through it, we nourish our families, our communities and take action to ensure future generations will be able to feed themselves. 

To do this, readily available and affordable feed ingredients in conjunction with sound scientific information on how these feed ingredients affect animal health and performance are required.

We all need nutrients to survive, not ingredients. Although I study the nutrition of animals, the focus is on their feed and the nutrients it contains. By increasing the list of feed ingredients that we know are safe and available for use, we increase our long-term ability to safely and affordably provide nutrients to those who require them.

Some of the animals currently involved in our nutrition research include chickens, fish and polar bears and some of the feed ingredients we are investigating include black soldier fly meal, cricket meal, various seaweeds and bioactives.

We all need to eat and by learning as much as we can about novel feed ingredients, particularly those that redirect food waste to a useable nutrient source (such as insect protein products), the better we are able to feed ourselves and others far into the future.

What impact will your work have on the average Canadian?

When we plant a seed, hatch an egg or take any other action that will feed someone other than ourselves, we are showing our hope for the future.

We are also showing we believe in what the people we are feeding can do for that future. I want to help people feed themselves, help them feed their communities and show them how to teach future generations how to feed their own world.