Wayne Roberts (1944–2021) was a food systems thinker, public intellectual, and “actionist.” This text was developed from a series of oral history interviews conducted between December 2020 and January 2021. It touches upon several of the key themes Wayne addressed during the interviews: adopting a food systems approach; employing the power of ideas; identifying solutions and being propositional; acknowledging progress for political credit; enhancing impact through media, old and new; working strategically to “seed” then “tip”; playing ball to influence government; and, forming alliances with academics and other champions. In addition, we provide selected links to additional resources from Wayne himself. In this article, which inaugurates the Interviews section of Canadian Food Studies/La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation, we aim to do justice to the gift of Wayne’s experiences and knowledge by sharing a selection and synthesis of his words.

Le Dr Wayne Roberts (1944-2021) a été un défenseur et un analyste des systèmes alimentaires, ainsi qu’un intellectuel renommé. Cet article a été rédigé à partir d’une série d’entrevues d’histoire orale menées auprès de Wayne entre le 14 décembre 2020 et le 10 janvier 2021. Il traite de plusieurs thèmes clés que Wayne a abordés durant les entrevues et propose une sélection de liens vers des ressources supplémentaires fournies par Wayne lui-même. Dans cet article, nous souhaitons rendre hommage à la générosité de Wayne, qui a offert son temps et ses connaissances, en partageant une sélection et une synthèse de ses paroles, avec cette première entrevue dans Canadian Food Studies/La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation/Canadian Food Studies.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Levkoe, C., Ballamingie, P., (2025), "Wayne Roberts: Food systems thinker, public intellectual, “actionist”", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i3.515)

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1. food policy
2. food policy councils
3. FOOD SYSTEMS

Original publication: Levkoe, Charles; Ballamingie, Patricia. "Wayne Roberts: Food systems thinker, public intellectual, “actionist”." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 8, no. 3, 2021. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i3.515. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.