About me

I grew up just outside Liverpool in the 1950s and 60s before heading off to Aberdeen university in 1968. There I studied soil science (BSc) and then history of and social studies of science and technology at Sussex, UK, (MSc) and Case Western Reserve Universities, Ohio, USA (Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship).

In the mid-1970s, I helped found and edit the journal Food Policy, then worked freelance for a year before going to Turkey late in 1978, as a technical cooperation officer with then Ministry of Overseas Development, helping set up an agricultural extension and communications centre at Ege University, Izmir. From mid-1981, I've worked freelance as a writer and consultant.

Over the years, I've worked on various agricultural development projects e.g. again long and short-term in Turkey, and short-term in Albania, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. As a writer I've travelled widely and contributed to many specialist magazines and newspapers and various journals.

In the late 1980s / early 1990s I was an honorary visiting fellow at the Food Policy Research Unit at the University of Bradford. From 1996-99, I was honorary visiting professor of food policy at Leeds Metropolitan University. Subsequently I've been an honorary research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University; the Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle University; Lancaster Environment Centre University of Lancaster; and, the School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University. I was a member of the Food Ethics Council, 2000-2021. I charied the Fabian Commission on Food and Poverty, 2014-15.