Doug Gurian-Sherman

Dr. Gurian-Sherman is currently a consultant on agriculture with Strategic Expansion and Training, LLC, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has recently advised civil society coalitions and organizations in the U.S. and Europe on issues of climate change and agriculture, pesticide alternatives, and genetic engineering. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow with the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University. Prior to his current position, he worked as a senior scientist for nearly two decades with U.S. NGOs including the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Center for Food Safety. He was a staff scientist working on pesticides and genetic engineering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the 1990s. He collaborates closely with several science-based organizations including Twin Cities Science for the People and the Agroecology Research-Action Collective.

His work emphasizes the importance of agroecological farming systems to address the challenges of growing food that enhances and relies on biological diversity, builds resilience, is good for the environment, and promotes food justice and democracy. His work analyses and compares the functions and interrelationships between agroecological approaches to agriculture in contrast to industrial systems and technologies. His analysis recognizes the fundamental social and political context that inevitably shapes the value of technologies to society. This perspective rests on the importance of farming methods and technologies as parts of social systems, as well as based on their physical risks and benefits.

He holds doctorate and master of science degrees in plant pathology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor of science in natural resources from the University of Michigan. Recent work includes co-authorship of a proposed platform for food and agriculture in the Green New Deal and critiques of pro-GMO documentary film “Food Evolution”.

Selected publications

Dooley, K., Stabinsky, D., Stone, K., Sharma, S., Anderson, T., Gurian-Sherman, D. and Riggs, P. (2018). Missing Pathways to 1.5°C: The role of the land sector in ambitious climate action. Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance.

Gurian-Sherman, D. (2017). Alternatives to neonicotinoid insecticide-coated corn seed: Agroecological methods are better for farmers and the environment. Center for Food Safety.

Gurian-Sherman, D. (2012). High and dry: Why genetic engineering is not solving agriculture’s drought problem in a thirsty world. Union of Concerned Scientists.

Gurian-Sherman, D. (2009). Failure to yield: Evaluating the performance of genetically engineered crops. Union of Concerned Scientists.

Gurian-Sherman, D. (2014). Are GMOs worth the trouble? MIT Technology Review.