Food Sleuth Radio

Did you know that the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP) has worked to promote farm and farm worker justice for nearly three decades?
 Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Jon Magee, farmer, organizer, researcher and lead author of AJP’s sunsetting report, “A Season for Solidarity.” Magee shares key components and barriers related to farmer and farmworker justice. The Project will be closing, but their report and toolkit can carry their critical work forward. See: https://agriculturaljusticeproject.org/toolkit/

Related Websites:   A Season for Solidarity Report: https://agriculturaljusticeproject.org/pdf/AJP-Season_For_Solidarity-web.pdf

Did you know that AI data centers consume large volumes of water in their cooling systems and generate polluted waste water that requires treatment? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Kelly Hunter Foster, JD, Senior Attorney, Waterkeeper Alliance. Foster discusses water use, pollutants, and overall environmental and public health concerns from data centers. She also discusses externalized costs, the loss of agricultural land, critical protective policies, and discussion points to share with legislators and citizens faced with data center construction in their communities.  For impact on rural communities, see the fact sheet produced by the MO Rural Crisis Center: Big Data Centers Make Bad Neighbors: https://save-our-farms.org/ and for the link between data center and PFAS compounds, see:  Data Centers and PFAS: https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-are-contributing-to-pfas-forever-chemical-pollution

Related Websites:   Invisible, Unbreakable, Unnatural: PFAS Contamination of U.S. Surface Waters: https://waterkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Waterkeeper-Alliance-PFAS-Report-FINAL-10.14.22.pdf

Did you know that breakdown products of a widely used fungicide in the U.S. food system poses both environmental and public health risks? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Tristan Brandhorst, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, University of WI-Madison. Brandhorst discusses his research on fludioxonil, a widely used fungicide in agriculture which breaks down to form a PFAS compound, thereby posing harm to our environment and human health. Consumer Reports ranks fludioxonil one of the six most concerning pesticides on produce.
 
 Related Websites:   Breakdown products of the fungicide Fludioxonil may account for observed environmental impact: potential implications for human health:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42254677/

Did you know that the majority of Americans believe the burden of pollution is being shifted onto families through medical bills and long-term health consequences, and that by a 7-to-1 margin, Americans favor strengthening or expanding the EPA rather than weakening it? (See: What Americans — including Trump Supporters — Actually Want from the EPA: https://substack.com/home/post/p-200483632)  Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Marc Boom, Senior Director of Public Affairs for the Environmental Protection Network, a non-partisan organization comprising more than 750 former EPA scientists, engineers and policy analysts. Boom discusses how EPA safeguards have been eroded, staff eliminated but still dedicated, and how citizens can get involved to restore regulations that save lives. He also describes EPN’s Safer, Not Sicker campaign: www.safernotsicker.org

Related Websites:   www.environmentalprotectionnetwork.org

Did you know that there is a conceptual change in science that includes a broader understanding of how pollutants and our microbiome interact to impact the development of disease? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Robin Mesnage, PhD, toxicologist, Scientific Director at the Buchinger Wilhelmi Therapeutic Fasting program in Uberlingen Germany, and visiting research fellow in the dept. of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College, London. Mesnage spoke at the Glyphosate Symposium at the U. of WA-Seattle in March, 2026. He shares his insight into how glyphosate, and more specifically Round-up herbicide affects the liver and microbiome. He also discusses the challenges of living in a toxic environment, polluted with plastics and pesticides. Mesnage discusses how banning toxic substances (bis-phenol A, glyphosate) can lead to unfortunate substitutions with more toxic compounds. Finally, he speaks about the power of intermittent, and therapeutic fasting to combat common diseases that plague modern society.
 
 Related Websites:   https://www.instagram.com/robin_mesnage/