Jean Halloran is Director of Food Policy Initiatives at Consumer Reports. At CR, she has led many projects on food safety, sustainable consumption and trade issues. She is currently responsible for developing policy and initiatives on reducing antibiotic use on livestock and antibiotic resistance, GMO labeling​ and biotechnology, meat and poultry safety, and seafood safety. She has testified on food safety issues before Congress and state legislatures and is frequently quoted in the media.
As Director of the Consumer Policy Institute from 1981 to 2005, she developed and supervised conferences, reports and input to government agencies on pesticides, sustainable agriculture, organic labeling, toxic chemicals, and waste recycling, as well as intellectual property issues and healthcare, funded by the National Science Foundation, government agencies, and numerous private foundations.
She has served on the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, on the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the FDA Food Advisory Committee.
Ms. Halloran helped organize the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), a forum of groups in Europe and the US that provides input to governments on trade policy, and serves as its US liaison point. She represented Consumers International at Codex Alimentarius, in developing standards for safety assessment of genetically engineered foods.
In 1979-1980, as a staff member of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, Ms. Halloran was one of the principal drafters of an Executive Order issued by President Carter designed to prevent export of banned and severely restricted pesticides, pharmaceuticals and consumer products. Jean Halloran received her B.A. with Honors from Swarthmore College.