Professor
University of Northern British Columbia
Room 10-3060 (Teaching and Learning Building)
1-250-960-5835
Awards
UNBC Award of Excellence in Research (2017)
UNBC Award of Excellence in Teaching (2014)
Research interests
Topics of particular interest include agricultural planning and farmland protection, local food systems, and the quest for community. These areas are closely related. I see producing and consuming one’s own food as a foundation for community – and the first step toward creating a more sustainable society.
I have two primary areas of focus.
Agricultural land use planning (farmland protection)
This work is grounded in a national research program at all levels of government (local, regional, metropolitan, provincial, federal) that ran from 2013-2018. The project was funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant ($464,000). One of my unique contributions to this field centres on policy analysis: measuring the strength of policy focus in legislative frameworks. A legislative framework for agricultural land use planning includes laws, regulations, statutory plans, implementing bylaws, enforceable policies, and aspirational policies and strategies.
Farmers markets
I have been studying the socio-economic benefits of farmers markets since 2006, when I completed the first province-wide study of markets in British Columbia. This study was replicated in 2012 and 2023. I was a co-investigator for Canada's only national study of farmers markets completed in 2008.
Additional areas of research:
I also study the conservation of the Ancient Cedars of BC’s inland rainforest in the Robson Valley.