Michel Pimbert

Professor Michel Pimbert previously worked at the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, the University François Rabelais de Tours in France, and the World Wide Fund for Nature in Switzerland. He has also done research for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), The World Conservation Union (IUCN). Professor Pimbert has been a Board member of several international organisations working on food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, environment, and human rights. He has worked in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and West Africa.

His research interests include: enabling policies and practices for agroecology and food sovereignty; the governance and adaptive management of biodiversity and natural resources; participatory action research methodologies; and deliberative democratic processes. Over the last 30 years he has published extensively in these areas, linking theory and practice to inform policy making on food, agriculture, environment, and human well being. He was recently nominated as member of the High Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Establishing inclusive governance of food systems — where farmers and other citizens play a central role in designing and implementing food and agricultural policies — is not just a matter of equity or social justice. Evidence shows that it can also lead to more sustainable livelihoods and environments. And yet, across the world, food system governance is marked by exclusionary processes that favour the values and interests of more powerful corporations, investors, big farmers and large research institutes. How can we tip the balance and amplify the voice and influence of marginalised citizens in setting the food and agricultural policies that affect them? This question has inspired my research and also indicates what I hope to achieve.