Board Member
M Jahi Chappell
M. Jahi Chappell is a scholar, organizer, son of social workers, and grandson of Michigan farmers. He is the Director of the Center for Regional Food Systems, W.K. Kellogg Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. Previous appointments include terms as Executive Director of the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network (SAAFON) and Food First, and as faculty at Washington State University and Coventry University (UK). He has published numerous articles and two books: Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Beyond (2019), and Agroecology Now! Transformations Towards More Just and Sustainable Food Systems (2020, co-authored with colleagues from the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University).
He was a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University’s Department of Science and Technology Studies, followed by three years as an assistant professor of environmental science and justice at Washington State University Vancouver (WSU). From 2012-2013, Jahi served as the Associate Director of the WSU Vancouver’s Center for Social and Environmental Justice. In 2013, he left WSU to serve as Co-Director of the Program for Decentralized and Democratized Food Systems at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. During his time there, Jahi spearheaded an open letter to the Secretary-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that helped to solidify the FAO’s commitment to agroecology.
Jahi has consulted for the La Vía Campesina, the FAO, and the World Future Council. In 2018, he published his first book, Beginning to end hunger: Food and the environment in Brazil and beyond, which Raj Patel has hailed as “a provocation to new thought and better action to end hunger permanently.”
He was a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University’s Department of Science and Technology Studies, followed by three years as an assistant professor of environmental science and justice at Washington State University Vancouver (WSU). From 2012-2013, Jahi served as the Associate Director of the WSU Vancouver’s Center for Social and Environmental Justice. In 2013, he left WSU to serve as Co-Director of the Program for Decentralized and Democratized Food Systems at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. During his time there, Jahi spearheaded an open letter to the Secretary-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that helped to solidify the FAO’s commitment to agroecology.
Jahi has consulted for the La Vía Campesina, the FAO, and the World Future Council. In 2018, he published his first book, Beginning to end hunger: Food and the environment in Brazil and beyond, which Raj Patel has hailed as “a provocation to new thought and better action to end hunger permanently.”
