UCS’s Ricardo Salvador Receives James Beard Foundation Leadership Award

Published Jul 29, 2013

WASHINGTON (July 29, 2013) – The James Beard Foundation today announced Ricardo Salvador, director and senior scientist with the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), will receive the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award along with four other honorees.

Now in its third year, the Leadership Awards recognizes individuals who are working towards a more healthful, sustainable and safe food system. The award identifies specific outstanding initiatives as well as bodies of work and lifetime achievement. The criteria used to select this year’s awardees included excellence of work, innovation in approach and scale of impact either within a community or across the nation. Salvador will receive the Leadership Award along with Hal Hamilton, Cynthia Hayes, Gus Schumacher, and Marion Nestle, a member of UCS’s National Advisory Board.

Salvador was selected for the Leadership Award based on his work in academia, philanthropy and advocacy in support of a healthy, green, fair and affordable food system. Salvador joined UCS in March 2012 and his forward thinking vision for the sustainability of our food system has linked healthy food and public health with healthy farms, and highlighted the perverse economic incentives built into our nation’s agricultural policies.

“Ricardo’s leadership and depth of knowledge about the science and economics of our agricultural system have made him a trailblazer in this field,” said UCS Executive Director Kathleen Rest. “He has spent his career working to improve agriculture combining his deep commitment to a healthy and equitable food system with creative vision, academic research, and community engagement to promote healthy food and farm policies. We are very proud of his achievements.”

The James Beard Foundation captures the spirit of James Beard, a champion of American cuisine, by celebrating and honoring America's diverse culinary heritage through educational initiatives, food industry awards, culinary student scholarships, publications, chef advocacy training, and thought-leader convenings.

“We are thrilled to have selected leaders who are shedding light on the important issues that our food system faces, and who are helping to examine, clarify, and resolve major conflicts in the food world,” said Susan Ungaro, president of the James Beard Foundation. “Our Leadership Award recipients are on the front lines of innovation and education, constantly working to make our food system a safer one.”

The 2013 Leadership Award recipients will be honored on October 21 at a dinner ceremony co-hosted by Good Housekeeping and emceed by chef Art Smith at the Hearst Tower. The awards presentation will be part of the James Beard Foundation’s fourth annual Food Conference, Paradox of Appetite: Hungering for Change, taking place on October 21 and 22 at Convene. Founding support for this year’s JBF Food Conference was provided by GRACE Communications Foundation and Edens, with additional support provided by Bon Appétit Management Company and United States Healthful Food Council (current list as of press time). For more information, visit jbffoodconference.org or follow #JBFLeads on Twitter and Facebook.