Tom Philpott
Senior Research Associate
Tom Philpott joined the Center in 2022 as senior research associate, after nearly 30 years in journalism, most recently as the former food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones (2011-2022). Back in 2006, the environmental magazine Grist became the first national publication to assign a regular staffer to the food politics beat when it hired Tom as a columnist. His 2020 book Perilous Bounty was named an “editor’s pick” by The New York Times Book Review and shortlisted for a New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. It came out in paperback in June 2022. Perilous Bounty has received in-depth reviews in The New York Times Book Review and The New York Review of Books.
Over the decades, Tom has held jobs as a dishwasher, a steakhouse grill cook, a teacher of remedial math and writing at a community college, and a farmer—experiences that shape his view of the food system to this day.