André Magnan

André Magnan is Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Studies at the University of Regina. His research and teaching interests include the sociology of agri-food systems, globalization and development, and sociological theory. Dr. Magnan has two principal areas of research. First, he has studied the financialization of agrifood systems, with a focus on changing patterns of farmland ownership and control. Here Dr. Magnan has documented how financial investors of different stripes are buying prairie farmland on a large scale. Along with Annette Desmarais, he is leading a multi-year study funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council that aims to understand how investor activity and farmland ownership concentration are affecting family farmers, rural communities, and the agricultural industry in the Canadian prairie provinces.

Second, he has examined the history and politics of grain marketing on the Canadian prairies, in particular, the rise and fall of the Canadian Wheat Board, one of Canada’s most important agricultural institutions. Dr. Magnan’s research on the history of the Canada-UK wheat trade and the CWB was published in 2016 as a book entitled, When Wheat was King, by UBC Press.

Recent publications

Calo, Adam, Annie McKee, Coline Perrin, Pierre Gasselin, Steven McGreevy, Sarah Ruth Sippel, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Kirsteen Shields, Adrien Baysse-Lainé, André Magnan, Naomi Beingessner, and Mai Kobayashi.  2021. “Achieving Food System Resilience Requires Challenging Dominant Land Property Regimes.” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.683544

Qualman, Darrin, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, André Magnan and Mengistu Wendimu. Concentration Matters: Farmland Inequality on the Prairies. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/concentration-matters

 Magnan, André, with Fred Tait and Stewart Wells. 2019. “Organizing the market: The Canadian Wheat Board,” in Frontline Farmers: How the NFU Resists Agribusiness and Creates our New Food Future, edited by Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Fernwood Books.

Bjorkhaug, Hilde, André Magnan, and Geoffrey Lawrence, editors. 2018. The Financialization of Agri-Food Systems: Contested Transformations. Routledge. Magnan, André.

Magnan, André. 2018. “Farmland Values: Media and Public Discourses around Farmland Investment in Canada and Australia.” In The Financialization of Agri-Food Systems: Contested Transformations, Hilde Bjorkhaug, André Magnan, and Geoffrey Lawrence, editors. Routledge.

Magnan, André and Sean Sunley. 2016. “Farmland investment and financialization in Saskatchewan, 2003–2014: An empirical analysis of farmland transactions.” Journal of Rural Studies (49): 92-103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.11.007

Desmarais, Annette, Darrin Qualman, André Magnan, and Nettie Wiebe. 2016. “Investor ownership or social Investment? Changing farmland ownership in Saskatchewan, Canada.” Agriculture and Human Values http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10460-016-9704-5

Magnan, André. 2016. When Wheat was King: The Rise and Fall of the Canada-UK Grain Trade. Vancouver: UBC Press.