Dr. Laila Kassam is an England-based development economist and scholar. Kassam has worked in international development since 2003, focusing on rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Peer-reviewed journals and international organizations have published Kassam’s research, including the CGIAR and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). She has also been a member of the Animal Advocacy Careers’ Advisory Board since March 2021.
Recently, Kassam co-edited the book Rethinking Food and Agriculture: New Ways Forward.
Laila Kassam: the Economic Development Scholar
Kassam co-founded the grassroots organization Animal Think Tank in November 2018. In March 2020, she began directing the group full time as Mission Lead. The organization is dedicated to the animal freedom social movement in the UK.
In 2013, Kassam became Founding Partner of Amaranth Sustainable. The consultancy group specializes in sustainable agriculture and fishing, ecosystem management, and corporate social responsibility. Kassam worked with clients including non-profits and international organizations with the group until 2018.
Kassam also co-founded the UK-based Veterinary Vegan Network, an offshoot of Ethical Globe, in 2015.
Prior to founding Amaranth Sustainable and Animal Think Tank, Kassam consulted for various international green efforts. From 2014-2016, Kassam worked as a consultant for the aquatic food system research nonprofit WorldFish. She co-authored research on farming systems to support rural development projects in several countries including Bagladesh, Sierra Leonne, and Ghana.
Before earning her PhD, Kassam became Program Associate for Rural Development for the Aga Khan Foundation in 2004. In 2005, she began as a Research Officer at the Coastal Rural Support Programme in Kenya. From 2006-2008, she was an Overseas Development Institute Fellow at the Ministry of Agriculture in Guyana.
Laila Kassam follows her father’s footsteps
Kassam was born in the UK and lives in Cookham, England. Her father, an expert in sustainable agriculture, is a professor at the University of Reading in the UK. He teaches agriculture and development.
Kassam earned her BSc in Economics and Politics from the University of Bristol in 2002. She earned her MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2003. In 2013, Kassam earned her PhD in Development Economics from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
Amir and Laila Kassam co-edited a book
Kassam co-edited Rethinking Food and Agriculture: New Ways Forward with her father Professor Amir Kassam. Elsevier published the book on October 31st, 2020. The book spans 476 pages.
“My father was approached by Elsevier…to edit a book on responsible agricultural intensification and he asked me to co-edit it with him,” Kassam said in a Seed the Commons Webinar. “I said…‘let’s make it really broad and really look at the structural drivers of the industrial agricultural paradigm.’”
“There are twenty main chapters across many different disciplines,” Kassam described to the Vegan Organic Network. “Half of the book is about new ways of thinking about our challenges and the dominant narratives that we hear.”
“We have chapters on animal ethics, on development as neocolonialism, and a chapter that I wrote with my father on paradigms of agriculture,” Kassam said. “Half of that chapter is devoted to reassessing and critiquing the dominant green revolution paradigm.”
“Overall, we highlight alternative paradigms of agriculture, of human nutrition, and of political economy that are more sustainable and just,” she said.
“We are promoting a sort of synthesis of conservation agriculture-based veganic agroecology…as a science, a practice, and a movement,” she explained.
Buy Rethinking Food and Agriculture: New Ways Forward from Elsevier here. Read extracts from the chapters here.
