Early Career Fellow

Zach Koehn

Zach (he/him) works on the Blue Food Assessment, a broad coalition that seeks to improve the role of marine and freshwater foods to the global food system. He focuses on the potential for these blue foods to contribute critical micronutrients to meet dietary requirements for people in different social and economic contexts. He also uses an environmental justice lens to identify inequities in the production and distribution of blue foods with respect to nutrition and livelihood security.

Zach completed his doctorate at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. His PhD explored how sustainably harvested seafood can improve public health by focusing on its connection to the food system to improve public health at global and local scales. This work combined policy analysis, data synthesis across natural and social datasets, interviews, and quantitative modeling of the seafood value chain. During graduate school he was a member of working groups at interdisciplinary centers, including the National Center for National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religious Studies, and a Master of Arts in Religious Studies, both from Stanford University. He has worked for NGOs, as well as US federal agencies, academic research institutions, and international organizations. Prior to his PhD, Zach managed a direct market company for local seafood, Real Good Fish, based in Monterey Bay, California.

He grew up on the U.S. Great Lakes, and loves the Pacific Ocean. Zach surfs in the winter, races paddleboards in the summer, and eats local seafood at least 2x per week.

Contact

zkoehn@stanford.edu

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Publications

Koehn, J., Leape, J., & Allison, E. (2023). Aquatic foods at the nutrition–environment nexus. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01229-y
Zamborain-Mason, J., Viana, D., Nicholas, K., & et al, . (2023). A Decision Framework for Selecting Critically Important Nutrients from Aquatic Foods. Current Environmental Health Reports. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-023-00397-5
Crona, B., & et al, . (2023). Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations. Nature, (616), 104–112. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05737-x
Hicks, C., Gephart, J., Koehn, J., & et al, . (2022). Rights and representation support justice across aquatic food systems. Nature Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00618-4
Tigchelaar, M., & et al, . (2022). The vital roles of blue foods in the global food system. Global Food Security, 33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100637
Koehn, J., Allison, E., Golden, C., & Hilborn, R. (2022). The role of seafood in sustainable diets. Environmental Research Letters, 17(3). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3954
Golden, C., & et al, . (2021). Aquatic foods to nourish nations. Nature, (598), 315-320. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03917-1
Naylor, R., Kishore, A., & Sumaila, U. (2021). Blue food demand across geographic and temporal scales. Nature Communications, 12, 5413. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25516-4
Koehn, J., & et al, . (2021). Fishing for health: do the world’s national policies for fisheries and aquaculture align with those for nutrition?. Fish and Fisheries, 23(1), 125-142. https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12603
Leape, J., & et al, . (2021). The vital roles of blue foods in the global food system. Center for Development Research (ZEF) in cooperation with the Scientific Group for the UN Food System Summit 2021. https://doi.org/10.48565/scfss2021-bg71
Drakopulos, L., & et al, . (2020). Transdisciplinary synthesis research in unruly environments: reflecting on a case study of vulnerability and urban fishing in the American Gulf Coast. Projections, 15. https://doi.org/10.1162/00c13b77.0c274823