- Ph.D. in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 2017
- MA in Sociology, Simon Fraser University, 2009
- BA in Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, 2006
Bio
Chris completed his PhD in the Integrated Study of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia in 2017. Chris currently works as a Lead Food Programmer with the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society, a Manager of Research and Food Systems with the One Straw Society, and a Project Manager on the Poverty Reduction Action Project with the Sunshine Coast Resource Centre.
Chris’ past work includes an in-depth industry analysis of local food and marketing systems and additional extensive analysis of Short Food Supply Chains in S.W. British Columbia. His research interests revolved around exploring the congruency of Fair Trade programs with Food Sovereignty principles through comparative case study work in Ecuador and Haiti: “From Inclinations to Indications: Mapping and Measuring Food Sovereignty in Export Oriented Supply Chains” Additional research with the interdisciplinary Think, Eat, and Grow Green Globally (TEG3) project focused on tracing the pathways and processes between various agriculture production models, health equity and sustainability outcomes in British Columbia and Ecuador.
Chris is an ex small scale flour miller and currently an active musician. He lives with his family in a small cabin on the Sunshine Coast.
Doctoral Dissertation
Practical mergers: export-oriented value chains and food sovereignty pathways in Haiti and Ecuador
This research explores the benefits and challenges of small-scale farmers’ participation in international supply chains. This work explores the practical mergers between market-based models of food system transformation, such as fair trade, and more radical social movement approaches such as food sovereignty within tropical fruit value chains in Haiti and Ecuador. This dissertation acknowledges the tensions of merging such approaches while also highlighting the distinct, yet complementary roles that different approaches to food system transformation can play in the development of more equitable, sustainable and participatory international trading arrangements.