Center for Regional Food Systems Racial Equity in the Food System Workgroup

Dr. Diego Thompson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Mississippi State University. He received his Ph.D. and Master degrees in Sociology and Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. His work in the United States has focused on the participation and inclusion of historically disadvantaged groups in agri-food systems, working with Hispanic meatpacking workers and beginning gardeners and farmers in Iowa, migrant farmworkers in the dairy industry of Vermont, and migrant farmworkers and African American farmers in Mississippi. Dr. Thompson also studies how rural communities perceive and respond to environmental challenges created by human development and/or climate change. He is currently studying these phenomena in rural communities of Uruguay and the U.S. Currently, he is the coordinator of the Oktibbeha County Food Policy Council, member of the Mississippi Food Insecurity Project, and board member of the Mississippi Food Policy Council. Dr. Thompson has shared his work in multiple national and international conferences and he has published in journals such as the Journal of Rural Studies, the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, and the International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food.