David Cleveland is a human ecologist who has done research and development project work on sustainable agrifood systems with small-scale farmers and gardeners around the world, including in Kusaok (Bawku District, Upper East Region, Ghana), Hopi (Arizona, USA), Peshawar Basin (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan), Zuni (New Mexico, USA), Zapotec (Oaxaca, Mexico), and Santa Barbara County (California, USA). He earned an M.S. in genetics and a Ph.D. (1980) in agricultural anthropology from the University of Arizona, and is a Research Professor in the Environmental Studies Program, and the Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He is also co-director of the Center for People, Food and Environment in Tucson, Arizona.

Cleveland’s past research and teaching have focused on sustainable, small-scale agrifood systems, including population dynamics (migration, fertility), plant breeding and conservation of crop genetic diversity, local and scientific knowledge and collaboration between farmers and scientists

He is currently researching the potential for diet change to improve nutrition, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote food and climate justice, in California, the US, and globally. This includes investigating the conflicting roles of food on university and college campuses, where the public good mission of higher education struggles against the dominance of neoliberalism and food for profit.

His latest book is: Soleri, D., Cleveland, D.A., Smith, S.E. (2019) Food Gardens for a Changing World. (A resource for growing food for healthy people, communities, and ecosystems), Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK: CAB International.

Google Scholar page.

Interviews, profiles
CONSUMED: a podcast, interview with Jamie Lewis (2021).

On interrogating your food and why we are alive; PDF ONLINE. Web extra: Food for thought. A conversation about food; PDF ONLINE. Coastlines (Winter 2016), UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association.

Environmental Humanities Center (UCSB)  (2015)  UCSB Faculty Interviews.

Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)  (2015)  Science Network, Member Profiles, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, D.C.