Ken Cook is president and co-founder of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a public interest research and advocacy organization focused on protecting human health and the environment. Cook is the author of dozens of articles, opinion pieces and reports on environmental, public health and agricultural topics, including Mulch, a blog about food and agriculture policy. The sustainable food blog Chews Wise has referred to Cook as the "ag-wonk-meister"l.[1]
Cook has been listed several times as one of Washington's Top Lobbyists by The Hill, an influential Washington, DC, political journal.[2] He is a frequent source of environmental perspective and commentary in national print and broadcast media and has made frequent appearances on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, CBS's 60 Minutes, National Public Radio, and the evening newscasts of ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN among other programs. Cook is known for his decades of research and advocacy to reform agriculture policy to advance conservation and environmental protection. At the onset of debate over the 1995 Farm Bill, a front-page story in The Des Moines Register named Cook as one of the five most influential players in agricultural policy, alongside then-Senator Bob Dole, Leon Panetta (then the head of the Office of Management and Budget), then USDA Secretary Mike Espy, and former Farm Bureau head Dean Kleckner. A front-page profile in The Omaha World Herald in 1996 said, "Cook's fingerprints can be found on nearly two decades of U.S. farm law." In 2000, Progressive Farmer named Cook one of agriculture's most influential leaders in the 20th Century, alongside advocates like Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold.
Cook graduated from the University of Missouri - Columbia with an M.S. in Soil Science. He is married to environmental leader Deb Callahan.