Director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph; Professor; Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security, University of Guelph
Evan started thinking about agriculture and food systems while spending summers working on his grandfather’s fruit farm in Niagara. There, he watched his stock-broker grandmother rake in an unconscionable amount of money on commissions from her clients’ investments while the farmers around were letting their crops rot because the cost of harvesting was higher than the cost of importing from the Southern US and Mexico. He decided, however, it was easier to write and talk about farming than actually try to make a living on it so passed on inheriting the family farm, opting instead for grad school. He did degrees in forestry, anthropology and agriculture at UBC and UofT. Since graduating, he worked in a policy institute with the Hon. Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, and began his academic career in 2003 in the UK where he worked on farming and climate change at the University of Leeds. He is the author of approximately 70 scientific papers or book chapters on these topics, has written for the Guardian.com, CNN.com, ForeignAffairs.com, the Walrus and the Ottawa Citizen, and has two popular non-fiction books about food and food security including: Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations that was published by Simon and Schuster and shortlisted for the James Beard Food Literature Award. Currently, he is the director of the Arrell Food Institute, holds the Tier I Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.
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Jun 21, 2020 04:02 am UTC| Insights & Views Business
The COVID-19 lockdown has exposed a large number of problems in the food system. Whether it was the panic buying or workers in meat-packing plants testing positive for the virus, serious concerns have been raised about...
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Feb 04, 2020 12:18 pm UTC| Health
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How digital technologies can help Africa's smallholder farmers
Jul 12, 2019 09:58 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology
Digitisation could change the game for agriculture in Africa. Thats a key message in a report recently released by an international institution that enhances smallholder farming in African, Caribbean and Pacific...
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Jul 03, 2019 21:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canadas agriculture and agrifood minister, recently announced that, after years of consultations, Canada finally has a national food policy. Developing the policy had been one of the ministrys...
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Sep 13, 2018 13:15 pm UTC| Insights & Views Law
One of the key commitments the federal government made upon taking office was to establish a food policy for all Canadians. The rationale was simple. Although, or perhaps because, food intersects so many aspects of life...
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