Assoc. Prof. Dr. John McCarthy is Associate Professor in the Resources Environment and Development program at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. His research focuses on questions of governance, institutions and rural development with a focus on forestry, agriculture, food security and land use, particularly in Indonesia. He is along with Rob Cramb the co-editor of "The Oil Palm Complex: Smallholders, Agribusiness and the State in Indonesia and Malaysia" (NUS Press, 2016). He has also published “Land & Development in Indonesia: Searching for the People’s Sovereignty” (ISAS), and “The Fourth Circle: A Political Ecology of Sumatra’s Rainforest Frontier” (Stanford). John McCarthy is currently the country lead for Indonesia on the ACIAR project “Assessment of Food System Security, Resilience and Emerging Risks in the Indo-Pacific in the context of COVID-19”.