Kenton Lobe

Biography

Kenton comes from rural Saskatchewan, and spent the late 70s in Kolkata, India as a kid with parents working for Mennonite Central Committee. He settled back on the prairies and completed a BTh at Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg, and a BA in Classics and Anthropology at the University of Manitoba. After completing his teacher certification at Goshen College in Indiana, Kenton moved to Hong Kong for three years where he taught middle school geography and history at the Canadian International School. Upon returning to Canada, he completed an interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management at the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba. His field work was undertaken in Kerala, India where he explored the social and ecological impacts of globalizing shrimp markets on a small-scale fishing community. Kenton is a teacher/practitioner at heart and is as likely to be found at the farm as in his office. He brings a background in international advocacy work on agriculture and hunger to his work in the classroom. His six years as Policy Advisor at Canadian Foodgrains Bank, an international development NGO, examined the structural injustices that surround hunger, focusing in particular on international agricultural trade, the human right to food, and development assistance for small-scale farmers in the global South. The politics of people and place, particularly the discourse of food justice, continue to shape Kenton’s imagination and academic interests. Closer to the ground, he is a founding member of CMUs community garden, continues to participate in local food justice initiatives, and worked with students and alumni to form the Metanoia Farmers Worker Cooperative at the on-campus CMU Community-Shared-Agriculture Farm . 

Research Interest

International Development Studies, Geography, Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies.