Food Sleuth Radio
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© 2017 New Wave Corporation / KOPN 89.5 FM
Description
Dietitian Melinda Hemmelgarn helps listeners “think beyond their plates,” connect the dots between food, health and agriculture, and find food truth.
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Did you know that there is hope for patients diagnosed with ALS? Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the debilitating neurodegenerative disease commonly known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is influenced by genetics and environmental factors, including living near bodies of water frequently impacted by harmful algal blooms. Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Coco Newton, RD, MPH, CNS, a registered dietitian and holistic practitioner with expertise in functional medical nutritional therapy for improving the diet quality and quality of life for those diagnosed with ALS. Newton has been involved with Healing ALS: www.healingALS.org. She references the ALS Clinic at Duke University: https://alsclinic.duke.edu/our-research/ and the international conference on ALS and Motor Neurone Disease will be held Dec 5-7 in San Diego, CA: https://symposium.mndassociation.org/programme/. To learn more about algal blooms and neurodegenerative disease, see: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1087706 Related Websites: https://www.coconewton.com/
Did you know that Emily Dickinson wrote 4 tributes to the dandelion? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with John Cardina, PhD, Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Horticulture and Crop Science at the Ohio State University, former USDA research agronomist and author of Lives of Weeds: Opportunism, Resistance, Folly. Cardina discusses man’s largely futile fight against “weeds” on farms, lawns and gardens, the value of biodiversity and small holder farms, and why we should rethink our attempts to eradicate “invasives.” Related Websites: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501758980/lives-of-weeds/
Did you know that the “Green Revolution” is a cultural narrative that is rarely questioned? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Glenn Davis Stone, PhD, anthropologist, environmental scientist, and author of The Agricultural Dilemma: How Not to Feed the World. Stone discusses the legend and unintended consequences of the Green Revolution and explains that the Green Revolution didn’t speed up food production, but it did fuel the growth of fertilizers and pesticides. Stone advocates for the benefits of non-industrial, small-holder agriculture and helps us rethink the rhetoric and propaganda behind industrialized agriculture. https://www.sup.org/books/anthropology/smallholders-householdersRelated Websites: https://www.wlu.edu/profile/stone-glenn
Did you know that immigrant labor is critical to our food system, and most of the food that gets to our plates was grown, harvested and processed by the hands of immigrants? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Daniel Costa, JD, attorney, and Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the Economic Policy institute. Costa explains details of immigration policy, our dependence on immigrants for economic growth, and policies that affect immigrants’ quality of life. Costa was featured on the Investigate Midwest webinar on immigrant labor in the food system:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbqm6J1jAEA. If you’d like to comment on immigrant work visas, go to the Federal Register: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/09/10/2025-17390/agency-information-collection-activities-comment-request-revision-of-h-2a-temporary-agricultural, and if you’d like to better understand how Trump’s anti-immigrant policies could collapse the U.S. food industry, see this recent article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/17/how-many-immigrants-food-industry-workersRelated Websites: https://www.epi.org/people/daniel-costa/
Did you know that soil health is integral to life on earth? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Leo Horrigan, MS, Food System Correspondent for the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, and author of What if Soil Microbes Mattered? Our Health Depends on Them. Horrigan explains how and why successful farming starts below ground. He describes the symbiotic relationship between soil microbes and plants to support human and planetary health. He also explains how common practices used in conventional/chemical agriculture (synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and tillage) harm soil microbes. On a positive note, regenerative/organic agriculture offers great potential for a brighter farming future.Related Websites: https://clf.jhsph.edu/sites/default/files/2025-08/what-if-soil-microbes-mattered-1.pdf/
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. ImpactsRelated 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=V9K2yevB8IURelated 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=IlfRNK0R37MRelated 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 MonthRelated 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/aboutRelated 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
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