Overview

Hunan and Hubei provinces in China are big breeding and planting provinces, and the low utilization efficiency of large straw causes resource waste and environmental pollution. Meanwhile, feed materials such as corn and soybean cannot meet the breeding demand, and there is a contradiction of "human and livestock competing for grain". We propose the development of non-food feed material —— straw feed to alleviate this problem. In the process of continuously improving the project, we had deep contact with different subjects, all of which provided valuable input for our project. The following is an overview of our human practice work and the impact of different people on some aspects of our project.

Background research

In order to prove the value, feasibility, and social recognition of our project, we conducted a careful visit survey of feed producers, feed users, and social consumer groups in various ways. We compiled the survey content into a practice report document for everyone to review. These contents have well supported the project ideas we proposed at the beginning, and the positive attitude of social groups towards our project has well enhanced our confidence.

Questionnaire survey

Our team focused on breeding feed and straw utilization, and carefully compiled three questionnaires for each group and released them online. These questionnaires aim to collect detailed information from feed manufacturers, farmers and society to support the experimental development of our project. A total of 129 survey and interview questionnaires were issued, and 129 valid questionnaires were recovered. The recovery rate of the effective questionnaires was 100%. On the questionnaire data analysis, we found that the understanding of straw feed among various social groups is still in the silage of ruminants, and the understanding of straw feed on single cell protein is relatively limited. Although the recognition is not enough, but we maintain a very good positive attitude towards the subsequent development of straw feed. Therefore, our straw protein feed has high market tolerance and development potential at present, and also shows that the utilization of straw resources is not good.

Investigate the feed production industry

Our team took feed as the core and visited Yueyang Zhengda Feed Co., Ltd., Hunan Province, had an in-depth interview with the quality management department and sales department manager of the company, and showed them our experimental ideas and research results. Yin Liya, manager of the quality control department, said that many companies producing ruminant feed use straw or corn cobs to produce feed, but livestock and poultry feed is still grain as the main material, and straw feed has great potential for development.

Hunan Yueyang Zhengda Feed Co., LTD. Production of feed type is mainly compound feed. Compound feed refers to can be fed directly or after simple treatment, its advantages are reflected in the convenience of user use, convenient transportation and preservation, reduce the labor of users. The feed raw materials of the company mainly include energy raw materials and protein raw materials, of which the energy raw materials account for 55%, mainly corn, wheat, rice, etc.

The company's various feed prices are not the same, and divided into high-grade, middle grade, low grade. The annual fixed production is 200,000 tons, and the sales volume in 2018 only reached 90,000 tons, which has increased continuously in the past four years and reached 200,000 tons this year. Feed raw material price changes according to the change of the market raw material price, the feed cost rises, the sale price also rises accordingly.

Investigate the breeding industry

In addition to visiting the feed manufacturers, our team also visited the farmers group. They showed us common feed materials, feeding costs, and how to treat straw in the field. During the visit, we also introduced to them the excellent way of straw treatment in the current society, and showed them the way of straw feed treatment in our project. While investigating the feed-related issues, we also distributed our brochures to these farmers. We hope that at the same time to the field investigation and research, we will publicize the team project, popularize the knowledge of synthetic biology, and improve the awareness of straw utilization of farmers.

The above three parts of the investigation provide more real data support for the background and significance of our project.

Detailed survey data and process we have compiled a survey report for all people to download from the following links. 2023 Wuhan-Hubei-China team visit and questionnaire Social Practice Survey Report（调查报告下载链接）

Cooperation and communication

In this year's iGEM cycle, our team has communicated and cooperated with a number of different teams. These exchanges are very valuable in our opinion, and they provide a good inspiration to solve our confusion. Thank you very much to every partner who communicates with us.

Hubei Synthetic Biology Open Conference

Our Wuhan-Hubei-China team had the honor to attend and give a live speech with other synthetic biology enthusiasts. Teacher Yi Xiao expressed his affirmation for our project and pointed out that it was difficult for us to construct the fiber body, which played an important role in our subsequent modification of the experimental content.

In addition, in the afternoon of the same day, interesting activities such as booth interaction and charity sale of souvenirs were held in the hall of the training building of the freeze-electron mirror platform. One-to-one in-depth project communication between various teams, and cooperative relations were also established among related projects.

In this activity, we absorbed the research methods of other teams, and provided inspiration for the subsequent multi-subject research program. In addition, in the communication with other teams, we have established friendly relations with HBUT-China and WHU-China. HBUT-China co-organized a charity fundraising with us, and WHU-China invited us to make a field visit to Wuhan University. These experiences were crucial to our project.

Visit the WHU-China team

On September 20,2023, we Wuhan-Hubei-China and HUBU-China were invited to visit Wuhan University together to have an in-depth project communication with the WHU-China team.

We visited their laboratory and communicated with them about the difficulties in the experiment. We gathered together and put forward many new ideas, which played a certain role in promoting the improvement of our experiment.

During the visit, we also showed them the brochures and posters we made, had in-depth communication on the practice plan, and they also gave us suggestions to modify part of the content, which benefited us a lot.

Education and advocacy

Since its inception, our team has attached great importance to education and promotion. This part can greatly improve the public's understanding of our work and can well pass on our concept of "rational use of straw" to everyone, which has great potential in solving the sustainable development goals.

Biological knowledge promotion

Since the establishment of the science popularization activities, our team has insisted on publishing a biological science popularization article every week, and popularizing biological knowledge to the public in the form of wechat public account. We have published a total of 22 biological science articles on the popular science public account HBERS iGEM.

Each article was formed by the experimental team members Wang Xinling, Xiao Yuhe, Chen Kexin, Wang Xinyu, Tian Chao, the first draft, and the reviewer Luan Ziyi made the polish of the language. We are committed to spreading biological knowledge to everyone with humorous style and popular words, and contribute our own strength to the biological knowledge popularization education. We also hope that in this process, we can provide the basic knowledge support for the public to understand our project.

Support for education in poor areas

In July 2023, Xiao Yuhe, a member of our team, went to Shennongjia Forest District to carry out a 21-day supporting education activity, and was mainly responsible for the biology science class section. In the early stage, the member actively prepared the teaching plan, and in the process of volunteer teaching, to help students understand biological knowledge, enhance their awareness of nature protection, and cultivate their love for life.

She is responsible for the development of biological science class let the children's thinking exercise, stimulate the children's thirst for science, and was warmly welcomed by the children.

In addition, she also gave a brief introduction of our project to the children, distributed our brochures to the children, and called on the children to strengthen their environmental awareness and save resources.This activity seems significant to us, not only spreading our project philosophy to the youth community, but also fostering new forces for our subsequent biotechnology development.

Charity fundraising

From September 16 to September 27,2023, we joined other teams to hold the "IGEM Charity Donation Campaign", with the theme of "Gather every love, convey warmth", aiming to eliminate poverty and help poor children. The event was organized by the IGEM joint team, consisting of six teams: Wuhan-Hubei-China, HUBU-HUBEI-CHINA, HUBU-SK-China, HUBU-WUHAN-CHINA, HUBU-China, and HBUT-China.

We set up a number of fundraising points offline, and on September 17, we taught synthetic biology in Moon Bay community. While raising funds, we hope to enhance the understanding of synthetic biology and contribute to breaking the communication gap in the community.

We donated all the money we raised to the Hubei Provincial Youth Development Foundation. RMB 676.53yuan and 310 DIY key chains, with a total donation value of RMB 930 yuan. We hope to make a contribution to the public welfare cause and bring warmth and hope to the children in need.

Competition exchange meeting

Our team also held an experience sharing meeting in life science competition with four other teams from Hubei University (HUBU-HUBEI-CHINA, HUBU-SKY-China, China-HUBU-WHUAN-CHINA, HUBU-China). The event aims to disseminate knowledge of synthetic biology, raise awareness of various competitions, including IGEM, in Chinese universities, and encourage university students to participate in discipline competitions.

Yang Zhifan, dean of the School of Life Sciences of Hubei University, was invited to deliver a speech. In his speech, President Yang encouraged everyone to actively participate in the life science competition, to improve their academic knowledge and increase their academic innovation ability.

In the following session, five teams from Hubei University who participated in the IGEM competition in 2023 will give speeches in turn, and answer questions and doubts: popularizing science of biology and introducing the details of the competition. We also invited participants from other events in other life sciences to share their experiences. The response of the participants was very good, which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the students present for learning and the competition.

We are very pleased that this event has attracted your interest, not only to spread our project philosophy to the college youth community, but also to attract emerging forces in the life sciences.