Evan Fraser is the new director of the University of Guelph’s Food Institute.
A geography professor and Canada Research Chair with an expertise in global food security issues, Fraser has his fingers on the pulse of the timely issue of global population growth and food security.
The Food Institute is a hub of food knowledge at the university, and is at the center of a network of Canadian and international experts working to enhance food production and distribution, and strengthen Canada’s place in the vast global food economy.
The institute has connections to all of U of G’s seven colleges, each with a range of concentrations on different elements of food, including production, safety and security, environmental and economic impacts. U of G is one of the leading agricultural university’s internationally.
According to a U of G press release, Fraser’s focus will be on ensuring that the institute supports “a healthy planet and a food-secure future.”
“It is not only the amount of food we produce but the way we produce food that will be a defining challenge of the next century,” he said in the release.
To that end, more food will have to be produced on less land, and food waste, nutrition content, food distribution, and climate change impacts will have to be factored into future approaches.
“We must also fully understand the ecosystems on which we depend for food,” Fraser said. “It’s the only way we’ll be able to address the great global challenge of protecting the environment while safely feeding the world’s rising population.”
Fraser, a Canada Research Chair in Global Human Security, joined U of G in 2010. He heads the “Feeding Nine Billion” project, which focuses dialogue on the rapidly expanding human population and pressures on the food system.
