Food Sleuth Radio

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/ 

Did you know that pasture-based animal agriculture differs vastly from industrial feedlots? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Jenn Wheeling, holistic rancher and regenerative farmer.  Wheeling is one of several siblings who live and operate agricultural enterprises on James Ranch in Durango, CO. She describes a resilient regional food system that feeds her community and contributes to the region’s environmental and economic well-being.Related website:   https://jamesranch.net/ 

Did you know that insulin resistance increases risk for chronic diseases? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Barry Boyd, MD, MS, integrative oncologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Yale Cancer Center.  Boyd discusses his focus on nutritional support in cancer prevention and treatment, insulin resistance and glyphosate-related cancers.Related website:   https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1534735403259152 

Did you know that children who bring non-traditional foods in their lunch boxes can face bullying at school? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Joshua David Stein, food writer, restaurant critic, and children’s book author. Stein describes his work writing and performing children’s books. Lunch From Home, his most recent title, describes “lunch box moments” as faced by the lead characters (real professional chefs) when they were children. Stein explores the sensitive topics of cultural foods and how children react to “strange” food. A perfect back-to-school read to help children navigate their school cafeterias, embrace cultural differences and explore ethnic foods.Related website:   https://www.thebandbooks.com/; www.joshuadavidstein.com 

Did you know that over 600 U.S. prisons include agricultural activities of some kind? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Joshua Sbicca, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Prison Agriculture Lab at Colorado State University. He is also co-author with Ashante Reese of “Food and carcerality: From confinement to abolition.” (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358186429_Food_and_carcerality_From_confinement_to_abolition) Sbicca explains that plantation labor has never really gone away, and dives into the forms of unseen agriculture as it exists today in the “criminal punishment” system, and discusses who stands to profit from the agri-carceral industrial complex. He also describes his unique and collaborative Prison Agriculture Lab project which includes maps, stories and more.Related website:   https://prisonagriculture.com/