Bob Martin
Senior Advisor
While Bob will tell you modestly that he's not an academic or a scientist, his extensive expertise in public policy and knowledge of agriculture, environmental and health issues ultimately brought him to the Center for a Livable Future in 2011, where he worked as the director of the Food System Policy Program until March, 2023. During his years working for members of Congress from the Midwest, Bob gained a knack for strategizing and "bringing the right people together," he says.
Before joining the Center, Bob worked on Capitol Hill and in a state legislature, as well as for a family farm advocacy group. He also worked for The Pew Charitable Trusts, where he served as a senior officer at the Pew Environment Group following the dissemination of his work as Executive Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.
Bob worked closely with staff at the Center and other experts from the Bloomberg School of Public Health (BSPH) on the Commission, which was a joint venture of Pew and BSPH. Ultimately, the Commission published eight technical reports and one landmark report, published in 2008 and titled "Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America."
Five years after the first Pew report, in Bob and a team at the Center published a follow-up to the Pew report, “Industrial Food Animal Production in America: Examining the Impact of the Pew Commission’s Priority Recommendations” (2013).
In 2024, the Johns Hopkins University Press published “Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Environment, and Public,” a collection of essential essays on the environmental impacts of factory farms on public health. Bob served as a co-editor of the book, alongside James Merchant, the founding dean emeritus of the University of Iowa College of Public Health.
During his tenure at the Center, Bob enhanced policy efforts based on research conducted by the Center and other organizations, ensuring that the Center took a coordinated approach to research and policy while optimizing partnerships with colleagues at other organizations.
"Food has become the social issue of our time," he says. "I was lucky enough to participate in an effort to shine a bright spotlight on one aspect of the food system that is in crisis."