Food Sleuth Radio

Did you know that food and food production are central to our discussion about climate change? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Tom Philpott, food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones , and author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It . Philpott focuses on two key areas of U.S...

Did you know that young people worldwide are working to mitigate climate change, clean up their environment and create a more sustainable, livable world for future generations? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Marianne Larned, Founding Director of the Stone Soup Leadership Institute and author of Stone Soup for a Sustainable World: Li...

Did you know that poppy seeds used in baking come from the same plant that produces opiates, including morphine and codeine? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Sarah Sorscher, J.D., MPH, Deputy Director of Regulatory Affairs, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). Sorscher explains that the poppy plant cannot be legally grown...

Did you know that chronic wounds (those that have not healed in 12 weeks) affect approximately  6.5 million patients in the U.S. annually? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Nancy Collins, Ph. D., R.D., a registered dietitian who is certified in wound care, and is known nationally for her expertise in the complex relationship between ma...

Did you know that most cropland in the U.S. is characterized by large monocultures, whose productivity is maintained with costly inputs, such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and that this over-simplification of our of our food system contributes to climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview wi...

Did you know that August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month and August 25th-31st is Black Breastfeeding Week? https://www.facebook.com/BlackBreastfeedingWeek/ Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Kimberly Seals Allers, journalist, author and advocate for equity in maternal and infant health. Seals Allers discusses the economics, politics an...

Did you know that industrial agriculture is economically flawed, and survives by externalizing its costs to taxpayers, while spending billions of dollars on myth-based marketing campaigns? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Emily Miller, Research and Policy Manager at the Family Farm Action Alliance, and lead author of the report: “The...

Did you know that Lee Johnson is the first person in the world to go to trial against Monsanto to prove that the company’s popular weed killer, “Roundup,” causes a type of cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Carey Gillam, investigative journalist, Research Director at U.S. Right to Know https://usrtk.o...

Did you know that now is the critical time to facilitate a just transition of land to the next generation of farmers?  But the next generation of farmers who want to grow nutritious “table food” cannot afford land that is constantly under pressure from housing development or commodity crops. Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Suzan Erem...

Did you know that the commonly used fungicide, fludioxonil may cause oxidative damage to human cells? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Tristan Brandhorst, Ph. D., Senior Research Scientist, University of WI – Madison who discusses his investigation into the toxicity of the commonly used fungicide fludioxonil. Brandhorst has researched...

Did you know that fast food is heavily marketed to young children? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Jennifer Emond, Ph. D., MS, Assistant Professor in the departments of biomedical data science and pediatrics with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. Dr. Emond discusses her research on fast food marketing targeted to ch...

Did you know that food dyes in popular drinks and children’s foods can increase risk of hyperactivity and ADHD? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Aurora Meadows, M.S., R.D., Staff Nutritionist with the Environmental Working Group, who will discuss recent research on the detrimental effects of food dyes and additives on children’s behav...

Did you know that health insurance and child care are intricately related to community access to nourishing, fresh food? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Shoshana Inwood, Ph. D., Rural Sociologist and Associate Professor at the Ohio State University. Inwood discusses her decade-long research on family farmers’ struggles with access to...

Did you know that prison labor may be used in producing some of the food products you purchase at the supermarket? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with H. Claire Brown, award-winning journalist and senior staff writer for The Counter. Brown dives into her three-part investigative report on the prison labor that is used in our food system....

Did you know that excess sodium in the American diet is estimated to cause as many as 100,000 deaths and many billions of dollars in avoidable health-care costs each year?  Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Michael Jacobson, Ph. D, co-founder and long-time Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest ( www.cspine...

Did you know that climate change impacts water quality and foodwebs? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Sarah Nelson, Ph. D. , Director of Research at the Appalachian Mountain Club. Nelson discusses climate change impacts on environment and public health https://hubbardbrook.org/sites/default/files/pictures/HBRF/Why%20It%20Matters.jpg ,...

Did you know that food is our most intimate, powerful connection to each other, to our cultures and the earth? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Navina Khanna, co-founder and the Executive Director of  HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, and Labor) Food Alliance, a national alliance of organizations building collective power for tr...

Did you know that organic methods of livestock production offer widespread benefits to animals, people and planet?  Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Guy Jodarski, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, who compares conventional vs. organic and sustainable livestock practices. Jodarski’s work has focused on dairy cattle health, benefits of gra...

Did you know that organic farming in the rural Midwest is becoming increasingly difficult due to chemical and genetic drift from “conventional” farms? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Angela Jackson Pulse, organic farmer, inspector and auditor based in Vermilion, South Dakota. Jackson Pulse describes her on-farm experiences, loss of o...

Did you know that time spent in nature has therapeutic value? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Gabrielle Mack, Registered Physical Therapist and Licensed Occupational Therapist. Mack describes the physiological benefits derived from time spent in nature, and gardening. She explains how “green time” benefits both our central nervous sy...

Did you know that ”alternative” meat products are a $1 billion (and growing) market in the US? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Bryon Wiegand, Ph. D., Professor of Animal Science at the University of Missouri, State Meats Extension Specialist, and Associate Division Director in Animal Science. Wiegand defines and explains the science...

Did you know that trade associations exert political power on behalf of multiple corporations and help funnel hundreds of millions each year into our political system? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Lucy Martinez Sullivan, M.B.A., Executive Director of Feed the Truth, a new nonprofit organization which seeks to advance truth, trust...

Did you know that food insecurity is a chronic societal problem, made worse during the Covid pandemic? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Katie Martin PhD, Executive Director of the Foodshare Institute for Hunger Research & Solutions, and author of Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger ( Island Press ). Martin...

Did you know that fertility has dropped more than 50% over the past 50 years worldwide? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Shanna H. Swan, Ph. D., environmental and reproductive epidemiologist and professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Swan discusses her new...

Did you know that herbicides account for the highest usage of pesticides in the home and garden sector with over 90 million pounds applied on lawns and gardens per year? This “cosmetic” use of chemicals presents significant environmental and health dangers, especially for children and pets. Join Food Sleuth Radio host and registered dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Charles “Ch...