Dr. Stevens Azima is an agricultural economist and food systems researcher. His work spans Haiti, Canada, and the United States, with a focus on food systems’ contributions and challenges in ensuring food security and nutrition.

While his past work has explored diverse themes over the last decade, a central concern runs throughout: understanding the conditions that enable or hinder market- and nonmarket-based food production, agri-food supply chains, and food systems in fulfilling their roles in food safety, food security, nutrition, and health in ways that are inclusive, sustainable, and resilient. His research has been published in international journals such as Journal of Rural Studies, Agriculture and Human Values, Food Policy, Agribusiness, and Éthique Publique.

Topics covered or currently explored in his research include:

In Canada: the impacts of local food systems; gender and labor in agriculture; policy supports to alternative food systems; scaling-up challenges in local food systems and the development of institutional procurement; farmer adoption of sustainable practices to improve water quality; vertical coordination in the pork and egg industries in fast-changing contexts; and supply chain management issues in improving food security and access to nutritious perishable foods in the Canadian Arctic.

In Haiti: market-based solutions to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in the peanut supply chain across both formal and informal sectors.

In the United States (ongoing): nonmarket food production and home and wild food procurement, their links with food security, dietary quality, and nutrition; food assistance programs; regional self-sufficiency and climate resilience.

In his future research, Dr. Azima plans to focus on on the economics of food systems resilience, with a focus on critical functions such as food security and nutrition. He also plans to examine more closely, through a food systems approach, the intersection of food, nutrition, and health (how nutrition influences health, and how the healthcare system impacts nutrition). Finally, he aims to study food systems transformation at scales beyond the local, including subnational regional systems and city-region systems, using an international comparative lens.

Dr. Azima employs both quantitative and qualitative research methods, drawing on diverse economic frameworks ranging from microeconomics to experimental and behavioral economics, as well as new institutional economics. He complements these with interdisciplinary perspectives from fields such as sociology, gender studies, public policy, and nutrition. He is also committed to methodological innovation and collaboration, believing that the major challenges facing food systems in the 21st century demand multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research. He regards the wicked nature of many of these challenges (e.g., achieving climate resilience), as making outreach and active collaboration with stakeholders and society not only desirable but indispensable. This belief has informed his contributions to academic service, outreach, and media engagement, fostering public dialogue on food systems within and beyond academic walls.

Dr. Azima is also a passionate teacher. He has lectured and assisted in teaching in Canada and Haiti at both undergraduate and graduate levels for nearly a decade. His courses cover food systems, research methods, applied microeconomics, and experimental economics. His teaching philosophy centers on instilling a joy of learning and encouraging students' active engagement with real-world problems, fostering critical thinking, development of hands-on skills, and the use of practical tools needed to transform food systems and prepare students to become change-oriented professionals. He is currently involved in guest lectures and other pedagogical activities across various courses at the University of Vermont, alongside his research.