Did you know that pesticide drift is a widespread, largely invisible problem that disproportionately harms racially marginalized, Indigenous, and working-class communities? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Jill Lindsey Harrison, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado – Boulder, and author of Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice (MIT Press). Harrison discusses the plight of poor agricultural workers, and the pesticide industries’ marketing strategies, and influence on educational institutions and regulatory agencies.Related website:   https://www.colorado.edu/geography/jill-lindsey-harrison

Did you know that all the feeding assistance programs in the world won’t solve the root cause of hunger, which is poverty? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Mark Winne, community food activist, writer, and Senior Advisor to the Food Policy Networks Project at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, for his discussion of the recent White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, and his recent blog post on the conference: https://www.markwinne.com/the-white-house-hunger-conference-dispatch-from-a-man-who-wasnt-there/  Winne shares his expertise in hunger and food insecurity, describes food systems, and explains what was missing from the recent White House Conference. He addresses the benefits and pitfalls of SNAP – the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, and steps we can take to improve our food system, food security and health.  His most recent book, Food Town USA (Island Press, 2019), explores communities in which food has been at the heart of healthy economic growth.Related website:   www.markwinne.com

Did you know that home gardeners have a critical role in helping to conserve the biodiversity of crops, which is crucial in combatting climate change? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Adam Alexander, award-winning film and television producer, and author of The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables (Chelsea Green 2022). Alexander discusses his true passion: collecting rare, endangered, but above all, delicious vegetables from around the world. He explores the social and cultural relationships we have with what we grow, and explains why and how vegetables have become lost or extinct. You can watch Alexander’s entertaining videos here: The adventures of a seed detective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHbaJ80X_Jk Related website:   https://theseeddetective.co.uk/ 

Did you know that large-scale off-shore marine finfish aquaculture operations pose a risk to our ocean commons? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Andrianna Natsoulas, Campaign Director, Don’t Cage Our Oceans, a national coalition working to protect our ocean commons from the risks of off-shore marine finfish aquaculture operations. Natsoulas describes industrial off-shore aquaculture operations, who profits from them, and the feed and medications that impact both fish quality and our natural ocean environment. Natsoulas also provides tips on choosing sustainable, wild-caught (vs. farmed) fish.Related website:   https://dontcageouroceans.org/ 

Did you know that most poultry sold in supermarkets is produced by an unjust “tournament system” that pits farmer against farmer? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Aaron Johnson, Program Manager for Challenging Corporate Power at Rural Advancement Foundational International – USA (RAFI-USA), a non-profit organization based in North Carolina that challenges the root causes of unjust food systems, and supports and advocates for economically, racially, and ecologically just farm communities. Johnson describes vertical integration within the poultry industry, how “tournament systems” exploit poultry farmers, and how banks and taxpayers support this unjust system. Importantly, Johnson helps us rethink cultural narratives on regulation. The film, “Under Contract,” takes us behind the scenes to understand the lives of contract poultry farmers: https://rafiusa.org/undercontractfilm/Related website:   https://www.rafiusa.org/programs/challenging-corporate-power/ 

Did you know that most food labels are tightly regulated by FDA? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Lauren Swann, Registered Dietitian and food label regulation expert. The two will discuss areas of confusion, trends, and the finer points of evolving food labels and their role in consumer education, marketing, and protecting public health. For FDA labeling information see:  https://www.fda.gov/food/food-labeling-nutrition.Related website:   Food & Nutrition Label; Dietary Supplement & Menu Labeling & Advertising: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/158141/ 

Did you know that fracking, and other methods of fossil fuel extraction and production puts farm land, water quality and public health at risk? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Taylor Brorby, author, poet, essayist, environmentalist and author of Boys and Oil: Growing up Gay in a Fractured Land. Brorby discusses the impact of the expansion of the fossil fuel industry into his home state of North Dakota, the calculated pitting of pipeline supporters against environmentalists, and his essay in Orion Magazine https://orionmagazine.org/article/diabetes-disability-fossil-fuels/ which brings into focus the relationship between personal and planetary health.Related website:   www.taylorbrorby.com 

Did you know that bottled water purchases can predict political involvement? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Manny Teodoro, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of The Profits of Distrust: Citizen-Consumers, Drinking Water, and the Crisis of Confidence in American Government.  Teodoro discusses the connections between the rise of the commercial drinking water industry, distrust in and failure of government, and broader withdrawal from civic life. Teodoro has served on expert advisory panels to state governments, UNICEF/World Health Organization, the American Water Works Association, and dozens of local governments. He works directly with government, community, and industry leaders to improve water affordability, equity, and regulatory implementation. He is a member of the Water and Health Advisory Council: https://wateradvisory.org/  and addressed the Third Coast Water Conference (3/31/21), speaking on “Confidence in American institutions and the Rise of Bottled Water”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OL8R0082OsRelated website:   www.mannyteodoro.com 

Did you know that the herbicide glyphosate can cross the blood-brain barrier, resulting in an increase of neuro-inflammation? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Ramon Velazquez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences, and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University. Velaquez discusses his new published research on the effects of glyphosate on the brains of mice, showing that it may increase the risk of neurodegenerative disorders. “Glyphosate infiltrates the brain and increases pro-inflammatory cytokine TNFα: implications for neurodegenerative disorders.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35897073/ He also discusses the role of choline in cognitive health and how it may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease.Related website:   https://velazquezlab-asu.github.io/index.html 

Did you know that Monsanto knew PCBs were harmful to public health, but continued to profit from their sale? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Bart Elmore, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Environmental History, core faculty member of the Sustainability Institute at the Ohio State University, and award-winning author of  Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W. W. Norton, 2015) and Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future(W. W. Norton, 2021). Elmore describes how he gained access to archival documents showing how Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) profited by exploiting labor and natural resources, and continues to do so today with GMO crops designed to sell an increasing number of damaging herbicides. Related website:   https://www.bartelmore.com/