Anelyse Weiler

As a researcher, writer, educator and advocate, Anelyse Weiler focuses on how livelihoods across the food system can promote human dignity and ecological resilience.

Anelyse's PhD research uses a case study of apple cultivation in BC and Washington state to better understand the environmental priorities of diverse agricultural producers, tensions between Indigenous land rights and settler modes of agriculture, and how people's migration experiences shape their sense of belonging. This research aims to render greater visibility to ecological knowledge that could inform a more just and sustainable food system.

Much of the drive for Anelyse's work stems from her experiences in farming and local food promotion. This has included working at the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, coordinating community-university partnerships at UBC, and taking a leadership role in the "Think, Eat and Grow Green Globally" research project with partners in Canada and Ecuador. Her Master's thesis project at Simon Fraser University explored how alternative food networks in BC have addressed social protections for un(der)paid farm interns and migrant farm workers.

Anelyse is currently engaged in projects on food security and food sovereignty in Northern Canada, alternatives to industrial meat, and creative forms of labour organizing among precariously employed workers in fast-food, meat processing and agriculture. 
Anelyse's academic work is closely informed by her commitments to environmental and social activist communities. She has contributed to the Umbrella Multicultural Health Co-op, Intergenerational Landed Learning Project, Friends of the UBC Farm, Sustain Ontario, CultureLink, and Vancouver's East End Food Co-op. She remains actively involved with Justice for Migrant Workers, Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture, and the BC Employment Standards Coalition. She splits her time between rural Alberta, BC and Toronto.