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Agriculture

Cross-disciplinary collaboration for a healthier planet
Four scientists speak in a dairy cow facility

Thomas Parsons of the School of Veterinary Medicine co-leads one of the Environmental Innovations Initiative’s research communities, on regenerative agriculture. The Initiative support synergizes with Penn Vet’s Center for Stewardship Agriculture and Food Security.

(Image: Penn Vet)

Cross-disciplinary collaboration for a healthier planet

The Environmental Innovations Initiative announces a third round of funded research communities to catalyze interdisciplinary research at Penn, investigating issues from regenerative agriculture to project-based learning for global climate justice.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Partnering with farmers to advance livelihoods, food, and health
tractors on display at the pa farm show

(Homepage image) With a $130 billion economic impact, agriculture is Pennsylvania’s largest industry. At the Farm Show this year, Penn Vet faculty, staff, and students highlighted the integral role that veterinarians play in keeping that sector thriving.

Partnering with farmers to advance livelihoods, food, and health

At the 107th Pennsylvania Farm Show last week, with the theme “Rooted in Progress,” the School of Veterinary Medicine’s importance to the state’s agricultural industry was on full display.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Meeting a ‘generational challenge’: Feeding the world and doing it sustainably
cows in new bolton center pasture

(Homepage image) Cattle contribute a quarter of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions, yet animal protein can be an invaluable source of nutrition and way of combatting malnutrition around the globe. The new Center’s work is stepping into this tension, says Parsons, to address “a generational challenge.” (Image: Penn Vet)

Meeting a ‘generational challenge’: Feeding the world and doing it sustainably

With the launch of the Center for Stewardship Agriculture and Food Security, the School of Veterinary Medicine is working “to make animal agriculture part of a solution to a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable future.”

Katherine Unger Baillie

To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data
map of the united states

The final classification employs an 8x8 kilometer grid scale, large from an archaeological perspective but which allows for consistency. The four maps here show the effect of grid size on data visibility. (Image: Chad Hill, published in PLOS ONE)

To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data

The project, called LandCover6k, offers a new classification system that the researchers hope will improve predictions about the planet’s future and fill in gaps about its past.

Michele W. Berger

Pizza, a nascent dairy industry, and infant health in the Peruvian highlands
Smiling person standing arms held down, together and in front, outside of a brick building.  Morgan Hoke is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and an Axilrod Faculty Fellow in the Population Studies Center in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked at a field site in rural Nuñoa, Peru, since 2012.

Pizza, a nascent dairy industry, and infant health in the Peruvian highlands

Research from anthropologist Morgan Hoke shows that in homes that produce their own foods, children exhibit better growth rates and mothers report more autonomy and economic control.

Michele W. Berger

Supporting agriculture and a safe food supply
cows in a field at new bolton center

In pre-Covid-19 times, the Marshak Dairy at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center was a place for teaching as well as research. Now an essential crew of workers remain to care for the cows, as other veterinarians in the School continue to care for livestock around the region. (Credit: Penn Vet)

Supporting agriculture and a safe food supply

Essential workers in the School of Veterinary Medicine are caring for livestock, keeping track of disease, ensuring product consistency, and communicating with farmers to ensure that farms can continue providing a reliable food supply for the community.

Katherine Unger Baillie