Ione Smith

Director and Senior Agrologist

BSc(Env) (University of Guelph), MSc (University of British Columbia), PAg

Ione founded Upland Agricultural Consulting in 2010, because she is passionate about working to find solutions to challenging food system problems. She is a Professional Agrologist with a background in community engagement, agricultural planning, and land resource science. Ione brings over 20 years of extensive experience in developing recommendations and policies for local and provincial levels of government that will improve farm viability and food production through strategic stakeholder engagement processes. Ione has built a career on developing innovative agriculture and food security plans, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, and farm business plans. She has worked with Indigenous communities, governments of all levels, and non-governmental organizations to craft actionable recommendations and implement key business strategies to improve and develop opportunities for agriculture and food security.

In addition to her consulting work, Ione currently serves as Vice Chair (South Coast) of the Provincial Agricultural Land Commission and is an Instructor of CED 230: Community Economic Development Approaches to Food at Simon Fraser University. Previous positions include Steering Committee member of the BC Food Systems Network and Board Member of Community Futures Sunshine Coast.

Ione received a MSc from the Institute for Resource Management, Environment, and Sustainability (RMES) at UBC in 2004, where her thesis focused on the relationship between farming and water quality in the Fraser Valley. She received a B.Sc. (Hons) in Environmental Sciences from the University of Guelph, where she was nominated for the prestigious W.C. Winegard Medal as the top graduating student from the Ontario Agricultural College. Originally from Montreal, Ione lived and studied in Australia and Ontario before settling in BC in 2002. She is fluent in both French and English.