Bernard Soubry

As it stands, Eastern Canada has no climate adaptation plan for its food system. Some people have pointed out that this is a terrible, dangerous way to handle things.

The Climate Resilience on Maritime Farms project was a multidisciplinary research project which tried to help increase the adaptive capacity of the food system in the Canadian Maritimes by helping farmers and other actors tell their stories of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation. I got to drive around in a pickup truck and check out people's wash areas, so it was a bit of a dream project. I'm in way over my head, but no one else is working on it, as far as I know.

As a part of the project, I earned a D.Phil in Geography and Environment at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, generously funded by a Rhodes Scholarship and a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship. For more information, check out

• the one-pager;

• our recent policy brief;

• the project working papers;

• or the gallery.

If this is something that interests you and you want to help out / learn more / spread the word, please feel free to get in touch.

thesis:
Towards Taking Farmers Seriously: Contributions of farmer knowledge to food systems adaptation to climate change. University of Oxford, 2021.

published papers:
Farming along desire lines: Collective action and food systems adaptation to climate change. People and Nature, 2020.

Are we taking farmers seriously? A review of the literature on farmer perceptions and climate change, 2007–2018. Journal of Rural Studies, 2019.

working papers:
Comparing Farmer Observations and Modelled Projections of Climate Change in the Canadian Maritimes. ECI, Sept 2017.

How Can Governments Support Adaptation to Climate Change by Small-Scale Farmers? A Case Study from the Canadian Maritime Provinces. ECI, Sept. 2017.

public testimony:
Testimony to the Senate of Canada's Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. October 26, 2017. (You can get get transcripts or a video.)

press coverage:
CBC Radio Nova Scotia - Information Morning (August 2020)
CBC Radio Nova Scotia - Information Morning (August 2019)
Spotlight on SoGE Research: Extreme Weather Farming
The Coast, Halifax's weekly
The Sheldon Macleod show (starts fifteen minutes in, -ish)
CBC Nova Scotia
CBC PEI
Ecology Action Centre

co-supervisors:

research associates: