Editor’s Desk: About RFK Jr’s plan to solve autism in five months …

By Theodore Ross

Last week on REAP/SOW, FERN released the second episode of our newest podcast series Forked, which I am co-hosting with Helena Bottemiller Evich, the founder and editor-in-chief of the newsletter Food Fix. 

Helena and I covered a lot of ground in our chat — federal nutritional guidelines, measles vaccinations, and the bipartisanship of milk and plant-based milk substitutes in schools. But the big issue of this episode was the “autism science bomb,” Helena’s phrase for Health and Human Services secretary RFK Jr’s promise to “eliminate” autism exposures by September:

I was astonished when I saw this comment. … [It] was really shocking to a lot of people in the scientific community. I think there’s just so much concern that Kennedy perhaps has already decided what the cause of increased rates of autism, like, what’s causing it. And they’re really concerned that he’s gonna pin it on like one thing — like vaccines or fluoride in the water or whatever. Food dyes. I mean, who knows?

One of the more interesting aspects of this conversation is the ways in which RFK’s tenure at HHS — and the extremes of the Trump administration more generally — have pushed reporters like Helena to engage with subjects a bit outside of their areas of interest. “It is something I struggle with because I am quite happy staying in my lane,” Helena said. “Part of the strength of my career has been focus: I focus on food policy, and I try to come at it with some expertise because I’ve been doing this a long time.”

If you want to hear how we hashed out this idea, and lots of other things, go to REAP/SOW, FERN’s audio platform, and download the episode. It’s also available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you choose to get your podcasts. You can also check out the video version of the episode, which is available on FERN’s YouTube channel.

Forked is still in its early stages. I hope you like it and that you’ll let people know about it. We’d also love your feedback. What works? What’s slightly less than fantastic? What would you like us to talk about? Drop us a line! Your comments are another way that you can help us keep doing our work at FERN. And as always, please consider making a donation. With your help, we can continue with our mission of making the food system more sustainable and equitable through powerful journalism and storytelling.