Professor
PhD, McMaster University, 2012
Email:
Edge, Sara
I am a community-engaged, interdisciplinary researcher with training in health geography and environmental equity. My work aims to contribute towards creating more sustainable and equitable access to environmental and social resources that support human health and wellbeing. In September of 2024 I became the Arrell Chair in Food, Policy & Society at the University of Guelph where I critically focus on issues related to food insecurity and food justice.
Cascading crises including climate change, the pandemic, inflation, recent tariff disputes and geopolitical conflict are undermining food systems and food affordability. In Canada 8.7 million people are food insecure or 1 in 5 households, inequitably impacting Black, immigrant, and Indigenous populations along with other intersecting marginalized groups.
I work with community groups, governmental organizations and other stakeholders to strengthen equity, justice and resiliency in food systems and food access, with particular focus on understanding the lived experiences of racialized peoples, immigrants and newcomers. My current work also seeks to cast attention onto novel examples of community self-determination, entrepreneurialism and collaboration in strengthening food security, food sovereignty and alternative food access pathways.
As a geographer I am also interested in how food justice needs, challenges and opportunities differ across rural, suburban and metropolitan food systems and geographies. This includes examining how decision-makers are planning for increasing diversity in small to large cities amidst changing migration settlement patterns.
GEOG*3320 Food Systems: Security & Sustainability
GEOG*6340 Human-Environment Relations
Dr. Jenelle Regnier-Davies, SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow
Ekow Ashun-Stone, MA
Pauline Cripps, MA
Luca Galler, MEnvSc (Co-Supervised with Dr. Thomas Graham)
Ummay Huni-Sumi, MA
Dean, J; Stenberg, K; Wilson, K; Edge, S; Ghassemi, E. (2025). Attracting and retaining immigrants outside of gateway cities: The importance of economic opportunities and amenities in smaller communities in Ontario, Canada. Journal of International Migration & Integration.
Jenelle Regnier-Davies; Sara Edge. (2025). "We shouldn't always have to be resilient": A critical discourse analysis of food system resilience and equity in Toronto, Ontario, in an era of global polycrisis. Canadian Food Studies.
Mei-Ling Patterson, Sara Edge. (2025). Exploring attention to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in Canadian environmental nonprofits: implications for racialized migrants. Local Environment: 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2025.2467874
Amber Grant, Sara Edge, Andrew A. Millward, Lara A. Roman, Cheryl Teelucksingh. (2024). Centering community perspectives to advance recognitional justice in urban environments: Lessons from urban forest practice. Sustainability. 16(4915)
Sara Edge, Zhixi Zhuang, Jennifer Dean. (2024). Reshaping essential public spaces and services: Towards socio-spatial justice in a post-pandemic era. Town Planning Review.
Jennfer Dean, Sara Edge. (2024). Migration and wellbeing in and of place. Wellbeing, Space & Society. 6(100199)
Jenelle Regnier-Davies, Sara Edge. (2024). Harnessing food system equity from the ground up: shifting co-governance practices in the funding of food security responses during the pandemic crisis in Toronto, Canada. Food, Culture & Society. : 1-23.
Sara Edge, Claire Davis, Jennifer Dean, Yemisi Onilude, Andrea Rishworth, Kathi Wilson. (2023). The role of urban and rural greenspaces in shaping immigrant wellbeing and settlement in place. Wellbeing, Space & Society. 4(100127)
Paige Robillard, Fatih Sekercioglu, Sara Edge, lan Young. (2023). Resilience in the face of crisis: investigating COVID-19 impacts on urban community gardens in Greater Toronto Area, Canada. British Food Journal. 125(11): 4048-4061. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-02-2023-0179
Regnier-Davies, J., Edge, S., Yu, H.M.M., Austin, N., Nasr, J., Daley, A., & Koc, M. (2022). Towards equity and resiliency in a post-pandemic urban food system in Toronto, Canada: the role and value of community based organizations in driving the COVID-19 emergency food security responses. Urban Governance. 2: 336-346. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ugj.2022.10.003
Claire Davis, Sara Edge. (2022). Sustainable greenspaces must be equitable and inclusive: interrogating the moral management & policing of queer communities in urban parks. The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 19(15505) http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315505
Regnier-Davies, J., Austin, N., & Edge, S. (2022). The intersection of structure and agency within charitable food programs in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic: cultivating systemic change. Critical Public Health. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2022.2130740
Jennifer Dean, Zhixi Cecilia Zhuang, Sara Edge. (2021). From Classrooms to Boardrooms: Applying a multi-scale coordinated approach to an anti-racist future for the Canadian planning system. Plan Canada. 61(4): 21-24.
Zhixi Cecilia Zhuang, Sara Edge, Jennifer Dean. (2021). What Is the Future of Public Space? Hidden Stories of Immigrant Suburbs during a Global Pandemic. Town Planning Review. 92(2): 229-237. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2020.69
Edge, Sara; Brown, Emily Lauren; Ghosh, Sutama; Murnaghan, Ann Marie. (2020). Procedural environmental (in)justice at multiple scales: Examining immigrant advocacy for improved living conditions. Local Environment. 25(9): 666-680. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2020.1812554
Sara Edge, Samantha Meyer. (2019). Pursuing dignified food security through novel collaborative governance initiatives: perceived benefits, tensions and lessons learned. Social Science & Medicine. 232: 77-85. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/i.socscimed.2019.04.038
Patel, A., Dean, J., Edge, S., Ghassemi, E., & Wilson, K. (2019). Double Burden of rural migration in Canada? Considering the health impacts of immigrant settlement outside the Cosmopolis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 16(5): 678. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.3390/ijerph16050678
Meyer, Samantha., Edge, Sara., Beatty, Jocelyn, Leatherdale, S., Perlman, C., Dean, J., Ward, P.R. and Kirkpatrick, S. (2017). Challenges to evidence-based health promotion: a case study of a Food Security Coalition in Ontario, Canada. Health Promotion International. 33(5): 760-769. http://dx.doi.org/doi: 10.1093/heapro/dax011
I welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students (MA or PhD) who share my interests in examining innovative solutions to building more sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems across urban and rural spaces. I am particularly interested in community-driven, equity focused initiatives, the role of entrepreneurialism, social enterprise, collaboration, and the potential of hub-based programming and infrastructure.
Please email your inquiries to me directly and include a CV/resume and brief statement of your interests.