Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute and professor of Geography at the University of Guelph, has been appointed to the steering committee of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security.
“What a privilege and honour it is, that the Canadian government nominated me to sit in this position. And it’s so wonderful to have the UN accept my nomination to the top policy making group internationally,” Fraser said.
The HLPE-FSN is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to global food security and nutrition and provides independent and evidence-based analysis and advice.
The panel is governed by a steering committee of 15 world-renowned scientists with various backgrounds in academia, research, the public and private sector, and civil society.
“The high-level panel of experts provides advice on a reactive basis. For example, it came out with a report written weeks after the Russian invasion of the Ukraine,” Fraser said.
“The panel was one of the first to raise the alarm bell saying that the war in Ukraine is going to have implications in term of global food security.”
Fraser said the panel is ready to act in moments of crisis.
“It also acts proactively looking ahead and thinking about issues coming up in the next five or ten years. This is the body that translates science into the policy making realm. So, it’s super exciting,” Fraser said.
Membership to the steering committee is renewed every two years through an open nomination process based on scientific excellence.
Nomination to the HLPE-FSN are typically made by governments, institutions or organizations of the nominees.
Since 2017, Fraser has served as director of the Arrell Food Institute (AFI). He has become one of Canada’s most cited social scientists researching food and sustainability and has also co-authored several books on food security topics.
Fraser also assists in leading the Food from Thought initiative, a research program based at U of G that explores how to use big data to reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint.
Having served as the Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security between 2010-2020, Fraser is also an alumni member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, a fellow of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation, and a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
“I chair the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council which is part of our food policy that advises cabinet and the Minister of Agriculture on the implementation of our food policy,” Fraser said.
“I’m hoping that my being on this UN panel, will create a flow of information and recommendations from the international to the domestic and I hope the opposite will happen as well.”
Fraser said that Canada has its own food systems policy, but that having that kind of holistic, interdisciplinary government framework internationally, is quite rare.
“In Canada, we’ve done some very interesting things. Our record in Canada is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. We do have a very serious food insecurity problem. We have no real school nutrition program. There are real gaps. What I’m hoping is I will be able to learn and then translate lessons back to the Canadian context.”
Fraser has experience in bringing a variety of stakeholders, multiple voices, and different perspectives together to think about how Canada can allow farmers to remain, become more profitable, and also help reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture.
“That’s a big part of what I do at the University of Guelph. A group of us a just created a new organization called the Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-food. And this is collaboration between some of the big corporations such as McCain, Loblaws, and Maple Leaf,” Fraser said.
"This organization is geared to finding new ways of producing more food, creating a more profitable environment of producers, while helping to reduce agriculture’s impact on the environment, and ensuring that agriculture becomes a key part of Canada’s strategy to a net zero world, a world with far less green house gas emissions."
Fraser said that with all of his experience working at the Canadian level, he hopes to share some of the lessons he has learned, globally.
“It’s a daunting mandate, but I’m so humbled and grateful for this amazing opportunity. I really hope I learn a lot," he said.
The committee’s first meeting will be held in Rome, Italy, later this month.
