Achievement

An interdisciplinary team consisting of one IGERT MASB fellow, Phoenix Mourning-Star, an ecology major, and four graduate students in the Department of Economics created a project on the ecological impact and economic feasibility of poppy oil as a biofuel in Afghanistan. The goal is to convert production of opium from growing poppy seeds in rural areas to production of biofuel that is economically anenvironmentally sustainable. Their motivation is to empower rural Afghani communities by offering viable co-products that can be made from the established poppy farms widely distributed throughout the country. Although still in its nascent state, this project's interdisciplinary breadth has included researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering to design and build a small hand-cranked device to crush oil seeds as well as the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences for seed analysis and testing.