REAP/SOW

Helena and Theodore explain why Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski flipped to cast the deciding vote on Trump’s Big Beautiful Act: an exemption that rewards her state’s highest-in-the-nation SNAP error rates. They also take a look at how the law creates barriers to food assistance and healthcare, with paperwork, work requirements, and pushing administrative costs to the states. Finally, RFK Jr. has talked a big game about banni...

In 2024, the owners Mary Mahoney’s Old French House, an iconic restaurant in Biloxi, Mississippi, pleaded guilty to fraudulently selling more than 29 tons of fish between December 2013 and November 2019, claiming it was locally caught when in fact it was imported. Quality Poultry and Seafood—another iconic Gulf Coast business—had sold mislabeled fish to other restaurants, too. Eventually, both businesses had to forfeit mor...

In the “Double Take,” Helena and Theodore have Trump whiplash on the threat of mass deportations in the food system. In “Forks and Knives,” the discussion turns to the historic cuts to food assistance for low-income Americans that are playing out as the “One, Big Beautiful Bill” makes its way through Congress. And for “Good Vibes,” the federal Dietary Guidelines may drop recommendations for how much Americans should drink....

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… wel...

In 1910, Black farmers owned as many as 16 million acres of American farmland. Today that figure has plummeted. Between 1910 and 1997, Black Americans lost an estimated 90 percent of their farmland to violent land theft and discrimination. In this episode, courtesy of the FoodPrint podcast “What you’re eating,” Jerusha Klemperer interviews Brea Baker, author of Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft And The Modern Movem...

The chemical industry is a cornerstone of modern American farming. It helps grow the food billions of people eat. It’s also causing vast environmental damage. In this episode of REAP/SOW, produced in collaboration with WWNO’s Sea Change podcast, you’re going to hear the story of synthetic fertilizer, and how this powerful concoction of chemicals has radically reshaped how we farm and what we eat – and how it’s poisoning co...

Theodore Ross and Helena Bottemiller Evich work through the tumultuous nomination process for Surgeon General. Donald Trump’s first nominee withdrew (questions about her medical and anti-vaxx credentials) and the newest one, Casey Means, has been branded a “Marxist tree hugger” by Laura Loomer. (Questions also remain about her anti-vaxxness). Conversation addresses the split within the groups backing HHS Secretary Robert F...

FERN editor-in-chief Theodore Ross talks to Genoways about his new book, Tequila Wars, which is an extraordinary exploration of the little-known – and often bloody history – of Jose Cuervo. Cuervo’s life, and his struggle to bring stability and prosperity to his industry during the profound disruptions of the Mexican revolutionary era, is an epic tale. This new book pulls Cuervo’s name off the bottle and pours it into real...

Is it possible that RFK Jr. believes autism research can be done so fast because he already thinks he knows what those causes of autism are? Other topics include: RFK Jr. “hitting his stride” after attending the funeral of a child who died of measles. How many people have been laid off at HHS and why doesn’t anybody know? Bipartisan bonhomie on the issue of plant-based milk, in a Senate proposal that almost no one thinks w...

Americans increasingly rely on processed food products as key parts of their everyday meals, even as scientists are just starting to scratch the surface in understanding how these food products influence our health. Now, these products have reached the political discourse. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has targeted ultraprocessed foods as a key part of his plan to “Make America Healthy Again.” As part of FERN’s special series in p...

This is a story about how a single TikTok video, taped in 2023 outside a meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado would change the lives of hundreds of Haitian immigrants, and embroil JBS – the world’s largest meatpacking company – in a controversy over mistreating workers. Reported by FERN senior producer Ted Genoways and produced in partnership with Reveal, this episode dives deep into a poorly understood part of the food ...