Trailblazing Excellence: Professor Yu Na Lee Wins Both 2025 SSHRC Insight and Insight Development Grants
Congratulations to Professor Yu Na Lee
On behalf of the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (FARE), we are delighted to congratulate Professor Yu Na Lee on being awarded both the 2025 SSHRC Insight Grant (IG) and the Insight Development Grant (IDG). This exceptional achievement reflects Professor Lee’s scholarly excellence and the profound relevance and impact of her research.
Professor Lee’s IDG project, Understanding Nutrition Inequality in Canada, tackles one of the most persistent and consequential public policy challenges of our time. This project examines nutrition inequality among Canadian households by analyzing how income, food preferences, and prices shape food consumption patterns. Although global food supply has become more equitable, income and health inequalities—such as obesity and type-2 diabetes—have widened within developed countries, including Canada. Because nutrition links income and health, dietary disparities may reinforce broader socioeconomic inequalities. Using household-level food basket data, the project will investigate differences in consumption across income groups and how households adjust food choices in response to price changes. It also evaluates the distributional effects of potential policies, such as a sugar-sweetened beverage tax, to assess whether food policies effectively improve health outcomes across socioeconomic groups. Her rigorous approach and innovative use of household food basket data will provide critical insights for designing effective and equitable agri-food and health policies in Canada.
Her SSHRC Insight Grant project, Gendered Vulnerability to Food Price Shocks and Uncertainty, extends her expertise to pressing global issues at the intersection of food security, gender inequality, and economic development. This project examines how food price shocks and volatility influence food insecurity and gendered vulnerability in low-income settings. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, it examines the impacts of rising, uncertain food prices on three key outcomes: child marriage, gendered migration, and fertility. Although climate shocks have been widely studied, little research has examined how food price shocks affect these gender-related outcomes. Using rich longitudinal data sets, the project conducts rigorous empirical analysis to fill this gap. The findings will improve understanding of how food insecurity shapes women’s life choices and opportunities, helping policymakers design interventions that support women’s empowerment, education, and long-term reductions in poverty and inequality. Professor Lee’s work promises to inform international policy efforts focused on women’s empowerment and long-term poverty reduction.
A remarkable dual achievement! Receiving both an IG and an IDG in the same year underscores the exceptional quality and impact of Professor Lee’s research. Her work exemplifies FARE’s commitment to scholarship that advances academic understanding and informs evidence-based policy for more equitable and resilient food systems—locally and globally.