Jan. 18, 2006 -- Ken Cook, president and co-founder of the Environmental Working Group, is one of several featured speakers Wednesday, Feb. 15, at the 2006 ASU Agribusiness Conference on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

The author of numerous articles on environmental and agricultural topics, Cook was named one of Washington, D.C.’s top lobbyists by Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill in 2001 and 2002.

During one of the morning sessions, he will discuss the rationale for farm subsidies, the distribution of farm subsidy payments, and how the public perception of farm subsidies will influence the next farm bill debate.

Cook’s company, EWG, is a public interest research and advocacy organization. Since its founding in 1993, the EWG has been a force in the national policy debate on the ecological impact of agriculture. In 2000, Progressive Farmer magazine named Cook one of agriculture's most influential leaders in the 20th Century. Cook is a graduate of the University of Missouri.

Other guest speakers include the new Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Richard Bell; Dana Brooks, director of congressional relations with the American Farm Bureau Federation; Fran Freeman, minister-counselor for agriculture at the Embassy of Australia; Milo Hamilton, president and co-founder of Firstgrain, Inc. a rice marketing advisory service; Mike Stevens, a cotton specialist with SFS Futures, the commodity division of Swiss Financial Services of Zurich, Switzerland; H. Scott Stiles and Rob Hogan, economists with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service; David Schweikhardt, professor and extension agricultural economist at Michigan State University whose research and extension work focuses on the economic impact of U.S. commodity and trade policies; and Bill Reed with public affairs for Riceland Foods.

The conference is presented and sponsored by the ASU College of Agriculture,
the Judd Hill Foundation, the Arkansas Farm Bureau, AgHeritage Farm Credit Services, Busch Agricultural Resources, Farm Credit Midsouth, Greenway Equipment Inc., Liberty Bank, Riceland Foods Inc., RiceTec, Inc., and the USA Rice Federation.
On-site registration begins at 8 a.m. in Fowler Center. Lunch will be served in the Convocation Center at noon. Afternoon sessions end at 3:30 p.m.

Admission to the conference is free, but luncheon reservations are limited to the first 600 who register. Additional conference information and on-line registration is available on the College of Agriculture web site http://agri.astate.edu.