Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

Michigan State University

New Row

Contact expert @[Full Name](fullname), @[Job Title](job_title) at @[Organization](organization) for media, speaking, professional opportunities and more.

@[Full Name](fullname) at @[Organization](organization) | Contact Form

Expert Inquiry

Open Sans

Gerald L. Young Book Award, Society of Human Ecology

The Ecological Society of America : Former Chair, Agroecology Section 

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University : Honorary Research Fellow

Instituto para la Investigación y Acción en Agroecología (Puerto Rico) : Board of Directors

Agroecology Research-Action Collective : Co-Coordinator/Co-Founder

Thousand Currents : Vice Chair, Board of Directors

Sparing or expanding? The effects of agricultural yields on farm expansion and deforestation in the tropics

Un‐yielding: Evidence for the agriculture transformation we need

A polycentric food sovereignty approach to climate resilience in the Philippines

Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Beyond (Fletcher Jones Foundation)

Agroecology Now!: Transformations Towards More Just and Sustainable Food Systems

Dr. M. Jahi Johnson-Chappell is a scholar, organizer, son of social workers, and grandson of Michigan farmers. From 2020-2022, he served as the Executive Director of the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, or SAAFON, which offers direct support and organizing for Black, sustainable farmers in the Southeastern United States and US Virgin Islands. Jahi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, both from the University of Michigan.  

Over the past 20 years, Jahi has researched and advocated at international, national, and local levels for participatory, socially just, and ecologically sustainable agrifood systems that center the voices of farmers, laborers, and the communities they serve. Pursuing this goal has taken him across sectors and continents, including positions as Associate Professor of Agroecology at Coventry University in the United Kingdom, and as Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Justice at Washington State University Vancouver, where he also served as Associate Director of the Center for Social and Environmental Justice.  In the nonprofit sector, Jahi has previously served as the Executive Director of the 46-year-old think tank Food First, and as Senior Scientist and Director of Agroecology and Agricultural Policy at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Additionally, he was a Founding Board member of the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI), and is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Agroecology Fund. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Board of Thousand Currents, an international grassroots foundation.

Jahi’s first book, Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Beyond, was published in 2018 by the University of California Press. In it, he analyzed world-unique breakthroughs in reducing hunger and supporting small-scale farmers in southeastern Brazil. Beginning to End Hunger’s scholarly contributions were recognized by the Society of Human Ecology with their Gerald L. Young Book Award. It was also recently cited by the United Nations’ High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition as a primary source for their recommendation to add the concept of people’s sociopolitical power, or agency, as an additional pillar of the FAO’s definition of food security.

Sustainable Development

Food Security Policy

Anti-Hunger Efforts

Sustainability

Right to Food

Agroecology

Ecology

Evolutionary Biology

Regenerative Agriculture

Conservation Biology

Michigan State University Faculty Profile

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Profile

Google Scholar Citations

ResearchGate Citations

Beginning to End Hunger

378. Dr. M. Jahi Johnson-Chappell on the Link Between Ending Hunger and Deepening Democracy

MSU receiving $20M to serve as USDA Regional Food Business Center

Food Sovereignty: Getting To The Root Of The Agriculture Problem

Realizing the right to food: How agroecology tackles both the climate and food crises in one go

Regenerative agriculture needs a reckoning

Two Biden Priorities, Climate and Inequality, Meet on Black-Owned Farms

W. K. Kellogg Foundation Endowed Chair in Food, Society and Sustainability

Jahi Chappell, Director of Agroecology and Agricultural Policy, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Released Oct 22, 2014

Sustainability Without Justice is Sustained Injustice”: Agroecology and Sustainable Intensification

The Agronomist By ISU Agronomy - Jahi Chappell presentation

"Political Economies of Good Food: Sustainable food without justice is sustained injustice"

University of Vermont
June 14, 2016

Introduced by Ernesto Mendez

M. Jahi Chappell Keynote Address: 2016 UVM Food Systems Summit

Parts of a lecture by M. Jahi Chappell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Environmental Science and Justice at Washington State University, Vancouver to the Social Sustainability Colloquium at Portland State University, January 27, 2012.  Entitled, Ecological Sustainability, Food, and Human Rights: The Necessity of 'Action Ecology' Dr. Chappell discusses the role of scientists as citizens and credible advocates. He suggests both are appropriate and when coupled with participation and outreach to the community, especially in the University setting, are effective at changing the status quo.

Videotaped by Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, and founder of www.EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability.

The Necessity of 'Action Ecology' by Dr. M. Jahi Chappell

IATP's  Director of Agriculture, Jahi Chappell speaking at The World Food Prize on October 18, 2013.

Dr. M Jahi Chappell at the World Food Prize

IATP's Director of Agriculture, Jahi Chappell speaking at The World Food Prize on October 18, 2013. Translated to Portuguese.

Dr. M Jahi Chappell at the World Food Prize (Portuguese)

Download the presentation slides: http://www.iatp.org/files/jahi_chappell_presentation_slides_03_17_2015.pdf

Hear Dr. Jahi Chappell, IATP’s Director Agroecology and Agriculture Policy programs shares his knowledge of how agroecology is the key to food sovereignty. Taking us from the Irish potato famine to today, we will examine how food sovereignty can become a reality.

Agroecology looks at how agriculture, society and the environment interact. It is a cutting-edge scientific field; a continuously developing set of practices to farm productively and sustainably; and a movement to acknowledge and support small farmers’ fundamental role in developing and maintaining healthy, just, and sustainable agriculture and food systems.

About the series
Food sovereignty speaks to the need for our food and agricultural systems to be designed by and responsive to the needs of all who grow, harvest, distribute and consume food, rather than by the demands of markets and corporations. Our March series on food sovereignty will look at three crucial components: the role of small scale farmers, the emerging movement of food chain workers, and agroecology as the guiding management principles for agriculture.

Other events in IATP's Food Sovereignty Series:

On March 2 to hear Nora McKeon, author of Food Security Governance: empowering communities, regulating corporations. Nora formerly worked for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and continues to be very active around food systems, food governance, small-scale farmer movements, and UN-civil society relations. She coordinates a program of exchange and advocacy with African and European small-scale farmers’ organizations.

And on March 12, meet Jose Oliva, Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance, a national coalition that collectively represents over 250,000 workers. The Alliance’s worker-based organizations, whose members plant, harvest, process, pack, transport, prepare, serve, and sell food, are organizing to improve wages and working conditions for all workers along the food chain.

Food Sovereignty Series: Dr. Jahi Chappell, IATP’s Director of Agroecology and Agriculture Policy

Episode 2 of the Local Bites Podcast.

In this episode, host Brian Emerson interviews Dr. M. Jahi Chappell of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy on the question: “What kind of food and farming system do we need to feed a growing world population in an ecologically sustainable and socially just manner?”

Listen to more episodes:
-- On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOKS2pvabkip4vRRzsIDHK-1b_8nT13T4
-- On LocalFutures.org: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/local-bites-podcast

How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach | Local Bites Episode 2

Morning keynote: Saturday, November 8

By 2050, the world’s population will reach 9 billion people. Can we increase food production fast enough to meet global demand—and do so sustainably? Hear from experts who view our food system in radically different ways, and decide for yourself where you stand on the issue.

Natalie DiNicola, Vice President of Sustainability and Signature Partnerships, Monsanto

M. Jahi Chappell, Director of Agroecology and Agriculture Policy, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Moderator: Marc Gunther, Editor-at-Large, Guardian Sustainable Business US

Debating the future of food

Jahi Chappell, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), speaking on the "Pushing for Better Agriculture Research and Policy" panel at the 2015 Food Tank Summit in partnership with the George Washington University.

Pushing for Better Agriculture Research and Policy - Jahi Chappell, IATP

Clara Nicholls, Peter Rosset, and Jahi Chappell speak about agroecology: a transformative science that incorporates traditional knowledge to create systems that mimic nature, respect nature, and sustain a growing population without relying on too many external inputs. 

Clara Nicholls is a Professor of Agroecology, president of the Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology (SOCLA), and co-director of CELIA (Centro Latinoamericano de Investigaciones Agroecologicas)

Peter Rosset is a Professor of Agroecology at the ECOSUR Advanced Studies Institute in Chiapas, Mexico and is the co-author of the book “Agroecology: Science and Politics”

Jahi Chappell is the Executive Director of Food First, a think-and-do tank focused on grassroots work and solidarity. He has also served on the faculties of Washington State University and Cornell University, and as the Director of Agroecology and Agricultural Policy at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Jahi has consulted for La Vía Campesina, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Future Council. 

Presented September 10, 2019 at the Soil Not Oil 2019 Environmental Conference, San Francisco CA

Soil Not Oil promotes agro-ecological practices and community powered solutions to restore ecosystems and reach environmental justice.
http://soilnotoilcoalition.org/

Videos provided by our amazing worktrade filmmakers and Survival Media Agency http://survivalmediaagency.com/

Plenary IV | Agroecology: A Global Movement | Soil Not Oil 2019

University of Michigan Food Sovereignty Conference: Local Struggles, Global Movement  (May 28-29, 2015). Hosted by the University of Michigan Sustainable Food Systems Initiative http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/sustainablefoodsystems/

Select Inquiry Type