We recently sat down with Christopher Neubert, deputy director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, to explore his background, career highlights, and advice for students. Chris joined our team in November 2025 after working in the United States Congress for nearly five years. Read on to get to know him.
How did you end up here at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems?
I first became acquainted with Kathleen Merrigan [Swette Center executive director] and Suzanne Palmieri [Swette Center director of strategic initiatives] in 2017 when I went through their food policy leadership program while working separately on my PhD studying agriculture in central Iowa. My PhD was very focused on critical geographies and theories of gender and sexuality. I completed my PhD, and was looking at the job market, and found that those policy skills really translated to work in the U.S. Senate. I started in the Senate Budget Committee advising Chairman Bernie Sanders, and after a couple of years there, I moved over to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, where I worked for Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow. I was then looking to get back to my academic roots. When Kathleen approached me about this opening here at the Swette Center, I thought it was a fantastic opportunity to engage with a lot of the food systems research that I've been spending the last several years working concretely on.
At the same time, this is a role that gives me an opportunity to think bigger in a certain sense. In Congress, it's all about what's in the realm of the politically possible, and what last-minute changes and budgetary adjustments can be made. We, in academia, can think bigger than a lot of the folks in Congress can. We can generate transformative ideas and look beyond just the next election cycle, look beyond just the next Congress, and think generationally. It is really great to be back in an academic environment.
Is there a certain project or endeavor that you're most proud of in your career so far?
I would say working on the Inflation Reduction Act that we passed in 2022. It was an exciting time for me to come to Congress. We addressed the role that agriculture can play in actually getting farmers to consider climate change and to consider new practices on their land — practices that aren’t just about mitigating carbon emissions, but also about reducing the level of carbon that's initially released. It was the first thing that I started working on when I went to Congress, and it was a real up-close and personal view of what negotiation looks like. The first draft of what became the Inflation Reduction Act was around $3.5 trillion, and it eventually got pared down to around $800 billion. Though significantly reduced, it was still a major investment.
It was the largest number of funds ever dedicated to climate change, across the board. It included transportation, energy, and obviously agriculture. It even addressed changes in tax law and tax incentives. It's very rare for anyone who works in Congress to, especially in such a short amount of time, achieve a significant victory like that. It was really exciting to be a part of that legislation.
I also loved working on a farm bill, even though we didn't get one passed in my time. We put forward a number of ideas that would be meaningful for both the people who grow food in our country and the people who eat food in our country.
Do you have any hopeful words of wisdom for students pursuing a career in sustainability?
I think anyone who's studying sustainability is invested in making sure that we are preserving the planet and creating livable futures, not just for future generations, but for ourselves. People who are doing work in sustainability are honestly the folks who are the most forward-thinking and the most seriously concerned about the fundamental problems that we are facing. It's an environmental crisis. But, it's an environmental crisis that also represents a social and cultural crisis about how we relate to each other, and in turn, how we relate to the planet. It's certainly not easy work. In fact, it's very difficult work. But if I could offer any words of guidance or wisdom, it would be that it's always important to remember what the end goal is, and that goal is ensuring we all have a future where we can live and thrive on this planet.
Do you have a favorite food?
I do! I love string hoppers, a popular South Indian and Sri Lankan comfort food consisting of steamed rice flour noodles pressed into small discs. I did a Fulbright in Sri Lanka years ago, where I fell in love with Sri Lankan cuisine. I was delighted when I learned there is a local Sri Lankan food truck that regularly serves string hoppers in the Phoenix area. You can find me there on Thursday nights, ordering my favorite.