Main Street Project has been awarded a grant from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to evaluate hazelnuts as a soy-protein replacement in free-range poultry systems.
There is a growing demand for soy-free poultry feeds as consumers shift away from traditionally raised and fed poultry products. Hazelnuts, as perennial and deep-rooted plants, offer a sustainable and regenerative solution that build soil while producing a high-value product.
The hazelnut feed project will take place on Main Street Project’s Research Farm and on Regeneration Farms, one of our partners. A primary purpose of Main Street Project’s Farm is to promote research and development of perennial agriculture, including the poultry-centered regenerative agroforestry system pioneered by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin and Main Street Project. Our farm research focuses on three factors:
- Social research centered on the well-being of food system participants, including farmers, farm workers, consumers and members of surrounding communities.
- Economic research that quantifies the transfer and growth of economic resources among people, such as fair wages for workers, fair pricing for consumers, profitability for farmers and the economic ripple effect of our system design.
- Ecological research thatexamines the biological, physical and chemical processes on which energy transformation depends, with special emphasis on the cycling of nutrients through air, soil, water, plants and animals, as well as keeping these cycles in balance.
The $24,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation (AGRI) Program, starts in June 2019 and runs through November 2020.