Zach Helder is a public policy leader on agriculture and the food-national security nexus. Helder was Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (KS-03), managing her Agriculture Committee portfolio, and has written on agricultural trade as a tool of international politics and war. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he led a working group of former US Secretaries of Agriculture to study new forms of global food weaponization, publishing their recommendations in Foreign Affairs.

Alongside his work for FSF Institute, Helder is Vice President of the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City and an officer for several grain industry associations. A Kansas City native, he holds a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA.