Center for Regional Food Systems

Ricardo J. Salvador is Director and Senior Scientist of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC. He is an agronomist with a focus on sustainability and systems analysis. Previously, at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation he worked with colleagues to support a national array of programs in Good Food (healthy, green, fair and affordable), and at Iowa State University he chaired the first graduate program in sustainable agriculture in the United States. He is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainability in Food. In 2014, he was co-author of an influential Washington Post Op Ed that called for the application of a coherent national policy for food, health and wellbeing. He is a recipient of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award (2013), Iowa State University International Service Award (2001), and the CIBA-GEIGY Agricultural Recognition Award for Outstanding Contributions to Agriculture (1992). His graduate degrees in crop production and physiology are from Iowa State University, and his undergraduate degree in agricultural sciences is from New Mexico State University.