Erin McGuire is the director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture. In this work McGuire spearheads global research and partnership initiatives aimed at enhancing the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and fostering community empowerment through horticulture, with a keen focus on nutrition and healthy diets. In this role McGuire oversees 19 different horticultural research projects in East and West Africa, Central America, and Southeast Asia, and UC Davis-based research focusing on social network analysis, postharvest management, and informal market value chains. In 2023, she was the chair of all the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Labs helping to generate discussion in the importance of horticulture, local leadership, and gender and social inclusion.  She has long-standing relationships with the CGIAR, focusing on innovating and scaling for equitable food systems transformation. 

McGuire leads a global class, “Innovating and Scaling for Social Transformation in International Food Systems,” attended by academics and practitioners worldwide to explore cutting-edge science on engaging agricultural innovation systems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. McGuire also directs the Global Horticulture Opportunities Study, a collaboration with WorldVeg and CGIAR spanning ten countries and involving hundreds of horticultural experts, to analyze R&D investments in fruits and vegetables and identify immediate research needs to advance the sector globally. In partnership with Wageningen University and the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, McGuire developed GenderUp, a tool used throughput the AR4D community to innovate and scale considering population and landscape heterogeneity. 

McGuire has worked as an economic analyst and researcher at UC Davis, where she set-up D-Lab curricula in Honduras and Thailand, co-authored research with Agricultural Resources and Economics faculty on the effects of purchasing local foods and led a project with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences International Programs Office on understanding call center efficacy in agricultural extension in Ghana and Bangladesh.

Prior to her UC Davis career, McGuire served as the policy director for the National Farm to School Network, where she championed children's nutrition and bolstered small farm income. Erin has worked for the United States Congress, where she formulated policies that significantly benefited rural communities by advocating for increased investments in locally sourced agricultural products. She holds a PhD from University of California, Davis, focused on equity in agricultural innovation systems, and an MS in International Agricultural Development focused on microeconomics and small-scale farming systems.

Recent Work: 

McGuire, E., & Rico Mendez, G., Rabsum, S., Yumbya, P., Ameyah, D., Jarman, A., Steinmetz, T., Tschirley, D., & Thumbi, M. (2024). Nothing for us without us: Localizing agricultural innovation systems: A case study from Feed the Future Innovation Labs. Manuscript submitted for publication to World Development Perspectives.

McGuire, E., Ewell, H., Bailey, A., Marina Valencia Leñero, E., Liani, M., Kabirgi, M., Al-Zu’bi, M., Giang Luu, L., & Sylvester, J. (2024) Breaking Biases and Building Momentum: Transforming Agricultural Research for Development Practices: Recommendations and Research Opportunities  (2024) Manuscript submitted for publication to npj Sustainable Agriculture. 

Dijkxhoorn, Y., McGuire, E., Talabi, O., Termeer, E., Jarman, A., Ndayitabi, S., & de Steenhuijsen Piters, B. (2024). Towards food system innovation: Engaging midstream actors in informal vegetable value chains. Submitted and provisionally accepted to The European Journal of Development Research.

McGuire, E., Boa-Alvarado, M., Marina Valencia Leñero, E., Al-Zu’bi, M., Giang Luu, L., & Sylvester, J. (2024).  Equity principles for social transformation. Agricultural Systems. Volume 218, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2024.103999.

McGuire, E., Leeuwis, C., Rietveld, A., & Teeken, B. (2024). Anticipating social differentiation and unintended consequences in scaling initiatives using GenderUp, a method to support responsible scaling. Agricultural Systems. Volume 215, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2024.103866.

Archie Jarman, Thompson, J., McGuire, E., Reid, M., Rubsam, S., Becker, K., & Mitcham, E. (2023). Postharvest technologies for small-scale farmers in low- and middle-income countries: A call to action. Postharvest Biology and Technology, 206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2023.112491

McGuire, E., Rietveld, A., Crump, C., & Leeuwis, C. (2022). Anticipating gender impacts in scaling agriculture for development technologies: Insights from the literature. World Development Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2021.100386