Stephen Thornhill

Biography

Stephen is currently working as a part-time Lecturer and Research Fellow at University College Cork, and part-time Project Manager of the AgriDiet project. Stephen is a consultant on agri-food marketing and policy issues, recent projects including the development of Food Security Certification Guidelines for the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), involving the UN, private sector and NGOs, advising and training the Kazakhstan Ministry of Agriculture on establishing a national agricultural market information system under a World Bank funded project and leading a study on the impacts of EU Free Trade Agreements, WTO and CAP Reform on the African, Caribbean and and Pacific (ACP) sugar sector funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat. Stephen has an advisory role within the Social Issues Expert Group for RSB, including recent advisory work on improving screening tools for the sustainability certification of biofuel companies, and advisory work with the ACP Secretariat and Least Developed Country Group on the accompanying measures for compensating developing country sugar producers and exporters. Stephen studied Agricultural Economics at the University of Reading, and after a short spell working within the grain industry and for the Milk Marketing Board, he became Senior Economist and then Director of Marketing and Economics at the UK Home-Grown Cereal Authority for 10 years, where he was accountable to the UK arable industry (farmers, traders and processors) and UK government, for providing independent, accurate, relevant and timely market intelligence and policy analysis, leading a team of 12 economists and statisticians. For the past 15 years Stephen has been working as a freelance consultant on agri-food market, policy and development issues, conducting projects around the world for the EU, World Bank, IADB, ACP Secretariat, Commonwealth Secretariat, national governments, trade associations, certification bodies, agri-food companies and NGOs. Stephen has an MSc in Rural Development as well as a Higher Diploma in Co-operative Organisation, Food Marketing and Rural Development, and is currently completing a PhD at University College Cork. His research interests are the economics of agri-food markets and food policy, economics of sustainability, food security, agri-food marketing information systems, sustainable and ethical agri-food standards and certification systems, agri-nutrition linkages and agri-food trade and farm support policies.

Research Interest

His research interests are the economics of agri-food markets and food policy, economics of sustainability, food security, agri-food marketing information systems, sustainable and ethical agri-food standards and certification systems, agri-nutrition linkages and agri-food trade and farm support policies.