Gregory Conko

Gregory Conko is the executive director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. His policy research at CEI focuses on issues of food and pharmaceutical safety regulation, and on the general treatment of health risks in public policy. He is particularly interested in the debate over the safety of biotechnology and bioengineered foods, as well as the application of the precautionary principle to domestic and international environmental and safety regulations. Conko is also the vice president and a member of the Board of Directors of the Auburn, Alabama-based AgBioWorld Foundation, a non-profit organization he co-founded in 2000 with Tuskegee University plant genetics professor C.S. Prakash. The AgBioWorld Foundation provides information to teachers, journalists, policymakers, and the general public about developments in plant science, biotechnology, and sustainable agriculture. Conko’s book, The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution (Praeger, 2004), co-authored with Henry I. Miller, was named by Barron’s as one of the 25 best books of 2004. His other writings have appeared in such journals as Nature Biotechnology, Transgenic Research, Politics and the Life Sciences, the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology, and the Cumberland Law Review, and in such newspapers as the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs as a commentator on public health and consumer safety issues, and he frequently participates in international meetings on food safety and trade as a credentialed Non-Governmental Organization representative. Conko is a member of the Board of Scientific and Policy Advisors for the New York-based American Council on Science and Health. He served as a principal investigator for the California Council on Science and Technology’s 2002 report, Benefits and Risks of Food Biotechnology. He was selected by the American Swiss Foundation as one of 25 Young Leaders from the United States in 2001. And, in 2006, he was named by the journal Nature Biotechnology to its short list of "Who’s Who in Biotechnology." Prior to joining CEI in 1994, Conko was a research associate with the Capital Research Center in Washington. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from the American University. And he received his Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude from the George Mason University School of Law, where he served as Articles Editor of the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy.