Steve Cohen
The Meridian Institute has hired Steven Cohen to be the communications director of AGree: Transforming Food and Ag Policy.

AGree is a foundation-funded effort working on long-term farm issues such as demand for food, conservation of water, soil and habitat, improving nutrition and public health and strengthening farms and communities to improve livelihoods.

Cohen most recently served as director of media relations for the International Food Information Council. From 2007-2011, he was a Rome-based consultant strategic communications adviser to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Earlier, Cohen headed communications for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service for six years, serving as the agency’s chief spokesman on the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and food safety recalls.

Before his USDA experience, Cohen worked for 10 years on Capitol Hill, serving on the staffs of three members of Congress, and as a journalist.