Taarini Chopra

A 2015 Young Alumni Achievement Award recipient:


Taarini Chopra
In the few short years following Taarini Chopra’s graduation, she has done an outstanding job advancing our understanding of seeds and diversity, as it relates to food security and the global south.

Currently Chopra works as a researcher and campaigner for the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN), an NGO promoting food sovereignty and democratic decision-making on science and technology issues in order to protect the integrity of the environment, health, food, and the livelihoods of people in Canada and around the world. Chopra has become a thought-leader in her field researching the environmental and socio-economic issues and impacts of GM crops.

Chopra also works as publications coordinator for Seeds of Diversity Canada – an organization searching out, preserving, studying, and encouraging the cultivation of heirloom and endangered varieties of food crops.

She’s published numerous articles in various magazines, journals, and online blogs, and authored several major (internationally disseminated) reports on the themes of seeds and diversity, and has become a recognized expert in this field. She also serves on the board of Alternatives Journal, a national environmental magazine, where she worked for three years as associate editor.

Chopra, who won the 2013, Patrick Conner Award for Integrity in Arts and the Environment, has also been active in every community she’s lived; having volunteered with the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable, researching for the Cetacean Observation Project in Greece. She’s also volunteered with organizations such as the Canadian Organic Growers, Greenpeace, Kawartha World Issues Center, Banff Environmental Action and Research Society, the Deccan Development Society, and the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi, India.

Beyond her academic pursuits Chopra isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s worked on two organic farms that prioritize producing food ecologically and sustainably.