Pierre Desrochers

Pierre Desrochers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga and a 2009 PERC Julian Simon Fellow. His research interests include economic development, technological innovation, business-environment interface, energy policy and food policy.

Articles by Pierre Desrochers

Silent Spring at 50

Roger Meiners, Pierre Desrochers, Andrew P. Morriss

A team of national experts explores Silent Spring's historical context, the science it was built on, and the policy consequences of its core ideas

The Locavor’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet

Pierre Desrochers

How eliminating agriculture subsidies and opening up international trade, not reducing food miles, is the real route to sustainability; and why eating globally, not only locally, is the way to save the planet.

Deconstructing The Population Bomb

Pierre Desrochers

Last year marked the 40th anniversary of Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, one of the two most influential environmentalist books of the 1960s with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962).

Food mile myths: Buy global

By Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu Activists tout low “food miles” to discourage consumers from buying foods produced in and transported from distant locations. This…

Critique of the ‘Food Miles’ Perspective

By Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu Executive Summary These days, one cannot wander into a supermarket produce section without seeing signs urging customers to “buy…

Changes in Attitude

Pierre Desrochers, Ronald Utt, Bruce Yandle, V. Kerry Smith

Comments from PERC friends and acquaintances. Noting twenty years of market approaches.