Christopher Golden

About

Chris Golden is an ecologist and epidemiologist interested in the interface of ecosystem service provisioning and human health, specifically in the context of global trends in biodiversity loss and ecosystem transformation. He received an AB in environmental conservation with special concentrations from Harvard College in 2005, an MPH in epidemiology in 2010, and his PhD in environmental science, policy and management at the University of California, Berkeley in 2011. As an Environmental Fellow, Chris worked with Walter Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health and Sam Myers at Harvard Medical School to study the human health impacts of ecosystem services. Since 1999, he has been conducting ecological and public health research in Madagascar and is fluent in several local dialects of Malagasy. His research broadly focuses on local people's dependence on natural resources for obtaining adequate health, leading to studies on wildlife consumption and the incidence of anemia, as well as the importance of botanical ethnomedicines and geophagy to local health. He is aiming to expand the geographic scale and depth of this research through his collaboration with the Harvard University Center for the Environment.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Economics
• Political Science
• Natural resource economics
• Fishery
• Geography
• Economic growth
• Business
• Environmental science

Selected publications

• The future of food from the sea

  Nature · 2020 · 841 citations

  . As food from the sea represents only 17% of the current production of edible meat, we ask how much food we can expect the ocean to sustainably produce by 2050. Here we examine the main food-producing sectors in the ocean-wild fisheries, finfish mariculture and bivalve mariculture-to estimate 'sustainable supply curves' that account for ecological, economic, regulatory and technological constraints. We overlay these supply curves with demand scenarios to estimate future seafood production. We f…

  DOI

• Environmental performance of blue foods

  Nature · 2021 · 622 citations

  DOI

• Aquatic foods to nourish nations

  Nature · 2021 · 594 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• The EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems

  The Lancet · 2025-10-01 · 235 citations

  reviewOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sustainable food systems and nutrition in the 21st century: a report from the 22nd annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium

  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2021 · 188 citations

  DOI

Recent grants

• CNH-L: Interactive Dynamics of Reef Fisheries and Human Health

  NSF · $1.4M · 2018–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Cortni Borgerson

  Montclair State University

  45 shared

• Samuel S. Myers

  Johns Hopkins University

  44 shared

• Hervet J. Randriamady

  Harvard University

  42 shared

• Daniel Viana

  Harvard University

  39 shared

• Jacob G. Eurich

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  38 shared

• Jessica Zamborain‐Mason

  Harvard University

  36 shared

• Jessica A. Gephart

  University of Washington

  33 shared

• Benjamin L. Rice

  Institute Malgache De Recherches Appliquées

  30 shared

Labs

• Harvard University Center for the EnvironmentPI

Education

• Ph.D., Environmental Science, Policy and Management

  University of California, Berkeley

Awards & honors

• Ziff Environmental Fellow: 2011-2013

Similar researchers at Harvard University

• Ling Zhangh-77
• Gil Bohrerh-69
• Emily V. Fischerh-51