May 31, 2023
Evan Fraser is Director of Arrell Food Institute and a Professor of Geography at the University of Guelph. There, Evan works to bring large and diverse teams together to develop strategies that balance our need to produce and distribute accessible, healthy, and nutritious food while stewarding the ecosystems on which we all depend. He believes that it is only by building bridges between the corporate sector, government, civil society, and academics that we will be able to create the food systems fit for the challenges of the 21st century.
Evan’s non-academic writings have appeared in dozens of publications including CNN and the Guardian. His 2010 book (co-authored with Andrew Rimas) Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, was shortlisted for the James Beard Food Literature Award, and his 2020 book, Uncertain Harvest (co-authored with Ian Mosby and Sarah Rotz) was awarded an honourable mention by the Science Writers of Canada.
As a researcher, Evan has co-authored more than 100 academic papers and book chapters, played a leadership role on teams that have raised over $100M in research funding, and mentored around 50 graduate students. He is one of Canada’s most cited social scientists working on food and sustainability. From 2010 to 2020, he was a Canada Research Chair and from 2014 to 2017 he was a Fellow of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars.
Evan also sits on several boards that advise government, industry, and charities, including co-chairing the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council and vice-chairing the Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security. Other past and present board roles include George Weston Ltd.’s Seeding Food Innovation scientific steering committee and the European Commission’s high level expert group on food system science.