Biography
Based in New York, Peter Lehner (@p_lehner) directs Earthjustice’s Sustainable Food & Farming Program, developing strategies to promote a more environmentally sound agricultural system and to reduce health, environmental, and climate harms from production of our food.
From 2007–2015, Peter was the Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the NRDC Action Fund. During his tenure, NRDC grew significantly, opened a new office in Chicago, started new programs on market innovation and food systems, and increased its communications and political capacities. From 1999–2006, Peter served as chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office. He supervised all environmental litigation by and against the state, prosecuting a wide variety of polluters and developing innovative multi-state strategies targeting global warming, air pollution, and opposing environmental rollbacks by the Bush administration He spearheaded novel watershed-wide enforcement programs and cases addressing invasive species, wildlife protection, and public health.
Peter previously served at NRDC for five years directing the clean water program where he brought important attention to storm water pollution. Before that, he created and led the environmental prosecution unit for New York City. His cases protecting the city’s drinking water laid the foundation for the city’s current watershed protection program. He clerked for Chief Judge James Browning of the Ninth Circuit.
Peter holds an AB in philosophy and mathematics from Harvard College and is an honors graduate of Columbia University Law School, where he teaches a seminar on food systems and U.S. environmental law. Peter is on the boards of the Rainforest Alliance, Environmental Advocates NY, and two large farms in Costa Rica, and is a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. He authored many articles and has been honored with numerous awards by EPA and environmental groups.