Michel Pimbert does research on food sovereignty and agroecology, the political ecology of natural resource and biodiversity management, as well as citizenship and deliberative democracy. He received his Doctorate in agricultural ecology at the University François Rabelais de Tours (France) and previously worked at the UK based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, the World Wide Fund for Nature in Switzerland, and the University François Rabelais de Tours in France. He is currently an Honorary Research Associate at the Centre for Agroecology and Food Security at the University of Coventry (UK).

While at the Rachel Carson Center, he was writing two books that drew on case studies that he has developed with local partners and IIED over the previous 13 years. As of February 2013, Michel Pimbert is Professor and Director of Centre for Agroecology and Food Security (CAFS) at Coventry University in the UK. The CAFS builds on the combined experience and strengths of university research departments and the voluntary sector to promote ecologically sustainable and equitable food systems in the UK and internationally.