Autonomy Through Agroecology: Bringing Change to Canada’s Farming Systems

From the Bay of Fundy to the botanical sanctuaries on the island of Kauai, Dr. Marney Isaac has travelled far to uncover the secrets that maintain the balance of our planet’s most precious and diverse ecosystems. She has devoted her career to understanding and preserving these exquisite places – the life that exists within them and the lives they affect without. 

Laterally, Marney now works to harmonize the philosophies of biodiversity, transferring knowledge between these wild spaces and our managed agricultural systems. She is an activist, an academic, and an adventurer with a creative spirit. Now finding herself standing squarely before the gates positioned at the epicenter of the movement toward sustainable farming, she shares with us her unique perspective on where we are with food security, and where she believes we’re headed.

Environmental Fidelity 

Marney’s story begins in New Brunswick, a province known for its contrasting extremes of topographic terrain and climatic conditions. The highest tides found in the world help shape not only its rugged coastlines but also its warm and sandy beaches. Inland, its rivers meander past rocky mountains, gentle rolling hills and low plains, and through its pristine Acadian Forests, all teeming with diverse and abundant life. 

The province is also unmistakably marked by its iconic history of forestry and fisheries, and it was here that Marney Isaac first bore witness to the degradation of her beloved natural resources. Unable to stand aside, the young activist sought to draw attention to the importance of these irreplaceable landscapes. This is where Marney’s commitment to the environment was born.  

Seeking a change of scenery, Marney left her home to pursue undergraduate studies at the University of Guelph, drawn there by its environmental science program. Her subsequent journey through academia was not straightforward, taking detours to work and fund her education. Her gigs varied from forest firefighting to farming, while her focus on education remained. 

Post-graduation, Marney moved to Kauai, Hawaii to work in ethnobotany at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, sparking her lifelong interest in the relationship between people and plants. This experience influenced her future academic pursuits.

Returning to Canada, Marney completed a master’s degree at the U of G, shifting focus from botany to the agricultural aspects of agroforestry. This shift set the tone for an enduring theme of her future studies, research, and work – diversity in agricultural systems. 

Marney’s journey brought her to Toronto where she continued her work in agroforestry and completed her PhD. This was followed up with a post-doctoral fellowship in France, known for its strong sustainable agriculture development programs, before returning once again to Toronto.

Since 2009, Dr. Isaac has continued to embody her original commitment to the environment as a professor of multiple faculties at the University of Toronto (U of T) including the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, the Department of Global Development Studies, the Department of Geography, and the School of the Environment. 

Today, as the Canada Research Chair in Agroecosystems Development, Co-Director of the Sustainable Food and Farming Futures (SF3) Cluster, and a valued member of the Science and Innovation Advisory Committee at Bioenterprise, Dr. Marney Isaac has evolved from a young activist to an exemplary leader. She heads the Integrative Agroecology Lab at U of T, mentors grad students, and continues her research, all while fulfilling her role as an orchestrator, acting as an invaluable point of connection between diverse stakeholders within the emerging world of agroecology and sustainable farming.