Ryan is president of the Canadian Council of the International Association of Agricultural Economists and is a member of the editorial board at Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics. Ryan’s research focuses on international trade regulation and foreign aid, with a focus on food assistance. Recent research topics include the distributional effects of Canadian agricultural policies, the merging of aid agencies with departments of international trade, and the untying of food assistance from domestic procurement. His work on the distributional effects of agricultural policies was recently awarded the John Vanderkamp Prize, given by the Canadian Economics Association for the best article in the journal Canadian Public Policy.