October 15, 2009
Cal Poly Public Affairs
Food Science Professor Spends Summer Teaching in Iraq
Professor Khalil (in blue shirt) in Afghanistan in 2006
SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Food Science Professor Hany Khalil spent the summer in Iraq working with Balad Canning Factory, the country's second largest food processing plant. In an effort to quell sectarian violence, U.S. and coalition forces are stepping up development work.
Khalil was implementing an agribusiness development project for the United States Agency for International Development. The focus of the project was on revitalizing tomato paste production to pre-war level to provide a market for farmers and employment for the community. Agriculture development work in Iraq is closely coordinated with the military and provincial reconstruction teams.
Khalil directs the CSU Consortium for International Development which is dedicated to utilizing CSU faculty expertise in development project.
It wasn't his first teaching summer in an unstable area; Khalil also journeyed to Afghanistan in 2006 to teach food processors there global production and safety standars for the dried fruit market.
Read about the 2006 trip to Afghanistan