American food politics are a mess. The traditional forces driving policy in agriculture and nutrition have been wiped away, and ordinary people are struggling to figure out who is in charge, what they’re up to, and why. Every two weeks, Forked hosts Helena Bottemiller Evich, of Food Fix, and Theodore Ross, FERN’s Editor-in-Chief, cut through the confusion, providing context and analysis, hopefully leaving you feeling less, well, forked. New episodes every two weeks, from the Food & Environment Reporting Network.
TRANSCRIPT
Voiceover: American food politics are a mess. The traditional forces driving policy in agriculture and nutrition have been wiped away, and ordinary people are struggling to figure out who’s in charge, what they’re up to and why.
Helena Bottemiller Evich: A southern Republican governor like playing country music in the background is essentially taking on like Coca-Cola in this moment, right? Like saying, we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars on these products.
VO: Welcome to Forked, podcast about food politics in the MAHA age from the Food and Environment Reporting Network.
HB: One vaccine critic, I think they wrote on X, “I still cannot believe that MAHA wasted the first 100 days on soda pop.”
Ted Ross: I can’t believe that either, right? You know, who knew I was in agreement with this guy?
VO: Host Helena Bottemiller Evich and me, Theodore Ross, cut through the confusion, providing context and analysis and introducing you to some fun new terms. Something called Sprayology, Wonderfeel, Winged Wellness. Forked takes on the big questions:
Theodore: What do you think is on the snack tray in a meeting like that?
Helena: Oh my gosh, I was trying to figure this out. I wanted to know desperately what were they noshing on.
VO: And hopefully leaves you feeling less, well, forked.
Theodore: It’s not that the sky is falling, or to use the forked metaphor, we’re not running out of forks and knives, we’re not going to be a spoon country in the next few weeks. But the status quo was not good to begin with, and the hope, the hope is that we have a government that …
Helena: Is trying to make it better.
Theodore: Right.
VO: Subscribe and listen to Forked wherever you get your podcasts. Our first episode drops July 1, with new episodes every two weeks. Or check us out on YouTube at FERNNews. You can download all FERN audio at REAP/SOW or at www.thefern.org.