Food Sleuth Radio

Did you know that the solution to hunger is solidarity, not charity? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH, Professor, U. of Mass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, and author of The Painful Truth About Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know and Start Again. (MIT, 2024). Chilton discusses the trauma of hunger, the structural issues that undergird hunger, the devastating impact of hunger on children, and who really benefits from keeping people in a state of precarity. She explains how the solutions to hunger lie far beyond food, and are based in compassion, empathy, solidarity and loving kindness. Related Websites: www.drmarianachilton.com

Did you know organic agriculture has a legal definition, but “regenerative” agriculture does not? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Charlotte Vallaeys, MS, independent consultant, advocate, and champion of organic agriculture. Board member of Organic Voices and the Organic Farming Research Foundation, Vallaeys discusses the definition of organic, its multiple benefits to health, environment and climate, and consumer confusion over the term “regenerative agriculture.” Related Websites: Real organic podcast: https://realorganicproject.org/charlotte-vallaeys-outcome-based-agriculture-pitfalls-episode-one-hundred-eight/

Did you know that the sugar responsible for alpha-gal allergy is widespread in processed food products, drugs and dietary supplements? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Heather Norman-Burgdolf, PhD, Associate Extension Professor in the Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at the University of Kentucky, and author of “Food Allergens: Alpha Gal.” Norman-Burgdolf discusses ways to navigate the alpha-gal allergy, which ranks as the tenth most prevalent food allergy in the United States. Related Websites: https://publications.ca.uky.edu/sites/publications.ca.uky.edu/files/FCS3646.pdf

Did you know that a tick bite could lead to a food allergy? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Sharon Forsyth, conservationist and patient advocate for the alpha-gal syndrome community. Forsyth created Alpha-gal Information.org, a comprehensive informational resource on AGS. She discusses how to avoid tick bites and the challenges of living with alpha-gal food allergy (also known as mammalian meat allergy). Related Websites: https://alphagalaction.org/

Did you know that agricultural practices influence the nutritional quality of our food? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Stephen van Vliet, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for Nutrition Studies at Utah State University. Van Vliet explains his investigation into how farming practices impact our environment, nutrient density, and nutritional quality of foods. Related Websites: https://stephanvanvliet.com/

Did you know that being hungry can affect our mood and behaviors? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Katherine Pryor, award-winning children’s book author, and good food advocate, whose latest title: The Attack of the Hangries, helps parents, teachers and children understand what happens when our fuel supplies run low, and how to stay well nourished. Beyond education and entertainment, this book can be used to help support food assistance programs (which serve one out of every 5 children in the United States), universal school meals, and school food policies. Related Websites: www.katherinepryor.com

Did you know that Tyson, Perdue, Cargill, and JBS have all been found to have children working in their meat processing facilities? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Todd Larsen, MA, Executive Co-Director for Green America, who will explain how and why U.S. children are working in agriculture, restaurants, and meatpacking industries. Related Websites: www.enduschildlabor.org

Did you know that one in five children in the U.S. receives food assistance? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Joseph Llobrera, PhD, Director of Research for the Food Assistance Team at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Llobrera discusses low-wage workers who depend on SNAP, and the far-reaching economic and health impacts of cuts to both food assistance and health care in the GOP’s Budget Reconciliation Bill. Impacts Related Websites: https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/5-29-25sfp-factsheets_rev8-1-25-national.pdf

Did you know that some of the most popular brands of chocolate rely on child labor/slavery on cocoa plantations? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Terrence Collingsworth, Founder and Executive Director of International Rights Advocates, which works globally to stop corporate human rights abuses and end modern day slavery. Collingsworth will discuss how children are kidnapped, taken to cocoa plantations, and the conditions of their forced labor. He exposes chocolate brands to avoid, and how to find chocolate that is free of child slavery. See: https://www.slavefreechocolate.org/ethical-chocolate-companies. To see films exposing child labor in the chocolate industry, see the Dark Side of Chocolate: https://www.slavefreechocolate.org/dark-side-of-chocolate and The Chocolate War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9K2yevB8IU Related Websites: https://www.internationalrightsadvocates.org/

Did you know that “essential” grocery store workers’ average earnings are less than a living wage? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with John Marshall, CFA, Director of Capital Strategies for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) 3000, and Assistant to the President at UFCW 324. Marshall will discuss the report, “Bullies at the Table: Consequences of Understaffing by Kroger and Albertsons.” He will also pull back the curtain on unseen challenges faced by grocery store workers, discuss the benefits of labor unions, and compare e-commerce vs. in-store shopping on supermarket bottom lines. Marshall references the role of Wall Street and negative impacts of mergers in this presentation: Kroger/Albertsons merger analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=als1GdcKSzU and Consumer Reports investigation into overcharging at Kroger stores: https://www.consumerreports.org/money/questionable-business-practices/kroger-stores-overcharging-shoppers-on-sale-items-a9659540552/ . Learn more about UFCW here: https://www.ufcw.org/about/ Related Websites: Bullies at the Table: https://economicrt.org/publication/bullies-at-the-table/

Did you know that the food served and sold in prisons and jails contributes to poor mental and physical health? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Daniel Rosen, MA, Co-founder of the Coalition for Carceral Nutrition and Public Health Fellow at the Bard Prison Initiative. Rosen will discuss food and eating conditions in prison and jails, and the food industry that profits from the exploitation of those who are incarcerated. Rosen describes food in prison as “dietary malpractice,” and describes his personal food experiences while being incarcerated. A TEDx Talk by Lucy Vincent is discussed: Could Healthier Food Solve the Prison Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfItENpMSr8 and Rosen’s presentation for the Center for Science in the Public Interest is mentioned: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlfRNK0R37M Related Websites: www.carceralnutrition.org

Did you know that breastfeeding may be the “biological norm,” but it is a learned skill for both mothers and babies. Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Jennifer Smilowitz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension in the Department of Nutrition, at the U. of CA, Davis, and Director of Scientific and Strategic Development for the International Milk Genomics Consortium. Smilowitz will discuss the multiple benefits of breastfeeding for maternal, child and planetary health, the policies needed to support breastfeeding, and how breast milk uniquely protects infants’ health as well as contributes to sustainability and community resilience. Note: August is World Breastfeeding Month Related Websites: https://www.milkgenomics.org/splash/

Did you know that the Bill Gates Foundation has tremendous influence over global health, journalism, and agricultural policy? join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Tim Schwab, investigative journalist and author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire. Schwab critically examines the influence and impacts of the Gates Foundation’s philanthropy, as well as how to build a movement against oligarchy. Schwab explains how Gates has successfully paved the way for corporate capture of public goods, and that many of his ventures have ended in failure, leaving communities worse off. Web: https://timschwab.substack.com/about Related Websites: https://timschwab.substack.com/about

Did you know that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals,” are increasingly being added to U.S. pesticide products, contaminating waterways and posing threats to human health? join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Nathan Donley, Ph.D., Environmental Health Science Director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Donley discusses a recent paper: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp13954 which describes how per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals,” increasingly end up in widely used pesticides, and the risks these chemicals pose to our environment and public health. Web: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp13954 and https://biologicaldiversity.org/ Related Websites: https://biologicaldiversity.org/

Did you know that animal abuse takes place on factory farms and slaughterhouses? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Gail A. Eisnitz, Chief Investigator for the Humane Farming Association and author of Out of Sight, An Undercover Investigator’s Fight for Animal Rights and Her Own Survival (Skyhorse Publishing, May 2025). Eisnitz discusses her work and ways we can help improve livestock conditions, and the animal welfare approved label. Related Websites: www.hfa.org

Did you know that powerful language and imagery are distractions from the reality of industrialized agriculture? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Will Potter, investigative journalist and author of Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth from Farm to Fable. Potter discusses the connections between factory farms and authoritarianism, and explains how “bearing witness” is an act of both love and defiance. (Part 2 of 2). Related Websites: https://www.willpotter.com/littleredbarns

Did you know that livestock abuse is widespread on factory farms? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Will Potter, investigative journalist and author of Little Red Bars: Hiding the Truth from Farm to Fable. Potter will discuss “ag-gag” and other legislation designed to hide widespread abuses in industrial livestock operations and protect corporate profits. Potter explores the connections between food, agriculture, climate, social justice and civil rights. (Part 1 of 2) Related Websites: https://www.willpotter.com/littleredbarns

Did you know that people living in arctic regions have some of the highest body burdens of toxic chemicals? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Pamela Miller, MS, Founder and Executive Director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics and Co-Chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). Miller discusses the unique food system, climate and environmental toxin challenges faced by those living in Alaska and the broader Arctic region. Related Websites: www.akaction

Did you know that oysters are not only popular items at seafood festivals, but vital to the health of our estuaries? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Sandra Brooke, Ph.D., research faculty at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory and scientific director and lead investigator of the Apalachicola Bay System Initiative. Brooke has worked on deep-water coral ecosystems in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, Norwegian Fjords, South Atlantic Bight and the Gulf of Mexico, including assessing damage following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She’ll discuss the ecosystem services provided by oysters, oyster shell recycling, oyster farming, and why and how oyster reefs are threatened, and can be restored. Related Websites: https://marinelab.fsu.edu/

Did you know that consolidation in the fertilizer industry results in environmental harm and less choice for farmers? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Basel Musharbash, antitrust and trade regulation lawyer, and author of Kings Over the Necessaries of Life: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System. Musharbash discusses how consolidation in food and agriculture affects farmers, consumers and the well-being of rural communities with a unique and surprising focus on fertilizer. Related Websites: https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Kings-Over-the-Necessaries-of-Life-Monopolization-and-the-Elimination-of-Competition-in-Americas-Agriculture-System_Farm-Action.pdf