Annette Desmarais

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Biography

Prior to obtaining a Ph.D. in Geography, Annette Aurélie Desmarais was a small-scale farmer in Saskatchewan and then Coordinator of the Global Agriculture Project that involved facilitating the development of organizational linkages between the National Farmers Union in Canada with counterparts in numerous countries. In that capacity, she worked with the transnational agrarian movement, Via Campesina, before conducting her doctoral research on and with this movement. Dr. Desmarais then taught at the University of Regina in the Department of Justice Studies and the International Studies Program for a decade before becoming the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Human Rights, Social Justice and Food Sovereignty (2013-2023) at the University of Manitoba. As CRC she had the opportunity to work with fabulous graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and research teams.

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Dr. Desmarais gained international recognition for her work on food sovereignty and the politics of the global peasant movement, Vía Campesina. Desmarais has co-edited three books on food sovereignty, edited a book on the National Farmers Union of Canada, and co-authored various academic contributions examining the gender dimensions of agriculture and rural social movements, including a major participatory study examining women farmers’ participation in Canadian agricultural policy. Dr. Desmarais recently retired from her academic position but remains actively involved in research as a Professor Emerita. She is currently also President of the National Farmers Foundation 
 

Education

  • PhD, University of Calgary, 2003
  • MA (Gender and Development, Institute of Development Studies), University of Sussex, 1993
  • BA, Simon Fraser University, 1986

Research

Research interests

  • Food system transformation through food sovereignty
  • Agrarian change 
  • Alternative land tenure models
  • Peasant and farmers' movements
  • Food and social change

Research summary

Dr. Desmarais’ goal is to advance research on the conceptual framework, practice, politics, potential and challenges of food sovereignty to build ecologically sustainable, socially-just, and healthy food systems. Over the years, she has conducted participatory research in peasant and farm movements in Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico, India, Spain and Canada. More recently, her research has focused on investigating the role of land tenure dynamics in enhancing and/or hindering the implementation of food sovereignty in Canada, exploring the gender dimensions of food sovereignty, and analyzing the experiences and challenges of youth entering agriculture and engaging in food system transformation. She engages in collaborative, participatory research in Canada and beyond.
 

Research affiliations/groups

Selected publications

  • Rita Calvário and Annette Aurélie Desmarais. 2023. The feminist dimensions of food sovereignty: Insights from La Via Campesina’s politics. Journal of Peasant Studies. 50 (1), 640-664. DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2153042 Open access at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2022.2153042
  • Calvário, Rita Oliveira, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, and Joséba Azkarraga. 2019. “Solidarities from Below in the Making of Emancipatory Rural Politics: Insights from Food Sovereignty Struggles in the Basque Country.” Sociologia Ruralis. 60 (4), pp. 857-879 Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soru.12264
  • Desmarais, Annette Aurélie, ed. 2019. Frontline Farmers: How the National Farmers Union Resists Agribusiness and Creates Our New Food Future. Halifax, NS and Winnipeg, MB: Fernwood Publishing. 
  • Wendimu, Mengistu Assefa, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, and Tabitha Robin Martens. 2018. “Access and Affordability of ‘Healthy’ Foods in Northern Manitoba? The Need for Indigenous Food Sovereignty.” Canadian Food Studies, 5(2):44-72. Available at https://canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cfs/article/view/302
  • Desmarais, Annette Aurélie, Darrin Qualman, André Magnan, and Nettie Wiebe. 2017. “Investor Ownership or Social Investment? Changing Farmland Ownership in Saskatchewan, Canada.” Agriculture and Human Values, 34(1):149-166. 
  • Desmarais, Annette Aurélie, and Hannah Wittman. 2014. “Farmers, Foodies and First Nations: Getting to Food Sovereignty in Canada.” Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(6):1153-1173. 
  • Wittman, Hannah, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, and Nettie Wiebe, eds. 2011. Food Sovereignty in Canada: Creating Just and Sustainable Food Systems. Halifax, NS: Fernwood Publishing.
  • Wittman, Hannah, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, and Nettie Wiebe, eds. 2010. Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community. Halifax, NS and Oakland, CA: Fernwood Publishing and Food First Books.
  • Desmarais, Annette Aurélie. 2007. La Vía Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants. Halifax, NS and London, UK: Fernwood Publishing and Pluto Press. Also published in New Delhi, India by Daanish Books. (This book was published in French, Spanish, Italian, Korean and Portuguese).
  • Desmarais, Annette Aurélie. 2002. “The Vía Campesina: Consolidating an International Peasant and Farm Movement.” Journal of Peasant Studies, 29(2):91-124.

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