Forked, presented by REAP/SOW
FORKED takes on the politics and policy that are turning the American food system on its head. Every two weeks, hosts Theodore Ross (FERN editor-in-chief) and Helena Bottemiller Evich (founder and editor of the newsletter Food Fix) dive into the complex issues that are transforming agriculture and nutrition. FORKED makes sense of this moment of radical change for everyone who cares about what they eat and where their food comes from.
Episodes
The Supreme Court recently heard arguments in Monsanto v. Durnell, a case that could decide the fate of state-level glyphosate warning-label lawsuits — and perhaps the MAHA movement. If the Supremes rule in favor of Bayer, which owns Roundup, the glyphosate-based herbicide that powers industrial agriculture in this country and around the world, MAHA’s leaders may revolt. Theodore and Helena discuss this, and the other ways...
What happens when you get a James-Beard-Award-winning chef together with one of the best food and ag daily reporters out there for a live, in-depth conversation on what’s happening now in food in this country? You get a Forked special episode! Taped live in Washington, D.C. with Theodore Ross, this episode gets into glyphosate battles, the GLP-1 future, and how restaurants are recovering in the Twin Cities.
How would you feel if someone told you one of the most pressing problems in food safety in this country was fixed? Now how would you feel if you learned that wasn’t really true? Helena and Theodore provide answers to these questions and more – in this episode.
In this episode, Helena and Theodore look at how efforts to allow states to ban soda and candy purchases for SNAP recipients may fizzle out — for now. We also unpack what the war with Iran is doing to fertilizer and food prices, and in Colorado, workers at one of largest meatpacking plants in the country go on strike.
In this episode, Helena and Theodore do a … Roundup … of what people who don’t have time to come up with better nicknames are calling “glyphogate.” It’s an in-depth conversation about the power of Big Ag and why MAHA may not get the regenerative agriculture future they thought RFK Jr. promised. We’re also taking a close look at the Senate testimony of Casey Means, nominee for Surgeon General, and whether the “nation’s doct...
Helena and Theodore talk about Iron Mike Tyson’s mama-said-knock-you-out vibes on ultraprocessed foods, RFK Jr. tag-teaming with David Kessler on 60 Minutes, and why Kennedy’s remarks about doing cocaine off a toilet seat actually kinda sorta make sense maybe a little.
Our guest on this episode is Michael Grunwald, a journalist and the author of We are Eating the Earth: The race to fix our food system and save our climate. He’s also well-known for his opinion columns in The New York Times, and his writing often takes on, well, the sacred cows of the progressive environmental movement — CAFOs, chemicals, veganism, and more.
Helena and Theodore are joined by Vani Hari, “the Food Babe,” a New York Times Best Selling Author, wellness entrepreneur, and social media influencer. This is a wide-ranging conversation, on Roundup, the new dietary guidelines, and why Hari wishes she’d been nicer to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
It’s 2026 and Forked has returned from a short holiday break. Helena and Theodore are excited – and maybe a little nervous – to see what happens in the second year of life in the MAHA moment. Along with bold (and unsubstantiated) predictions, in this episode: it’s SNAP bans on junk food, why skinny santas matter, and the pill that just may eat the American appetite.
In this episode, Helena and Theodore take the show on the road, talking many things MAHA and more with Jerusha Klemperer, host of the What You’re Eating podcast, from FoodPrint, a nonprofit dedicated to research and education on food production practices. This is a big-picture discussion, trying to figure out if MAHA is a political movement, whether it will last, and most importantly, is it doing any good? Helena focuses o...
This episode explores whether MAHA momentum in the states translates into actual policy change nationwide. Helena and Theodore host the first episode of Forked recorded in front of a live audience in Washington DC with two special guests: Summer Barrett, a self-described MAHA Mom – and influential lobbyist – in West Virginia who led the state’s charge to ban food dyes; and Scott Faber, from the Environmental Working Group,...
In this episode, Helena and Theodore look at the federal government shutdown and what it means for SNAP. Also, the Truth Social post from President Trump to America’s ranchers, calling on them to lower their prices, has spurred an America First maelstrom. And finally — peanuts are back! (Or, research shows that introducing children to peanuts and other potential food allergens at a young age actually helps prevent serious ...
Theodore and Helena discuss a kind of chaos that is almost becoming normal: painful layoffs and firings at a federal agency, which are then mostly undone not long after. This time it was the CDC, with the nation’s “disease detectives” going out the door and then back in before it even closed (among other layoffs.) The context here is the shutdown of the federal government, which means talking about what’s getting support ...
Veteran food policy journalist Tom Philpott, one of the hosts of the Unconfined podcast from the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, joins Helena and Theodore in a unique collaboration. Unconfined is a monthly interview show focused on the public-health implications of industrial meat production. They talk about why RFK Jr. rejected the UN Declaration on Noncommunicable Diseases, how the MAHA movement ...
The MAHA Commission has made big promises about what it would do to fix the nation’s food system and health. Its new strategy document includes 128 proposals for change – but little evidence that those changes can be made real. Helena and Theodore go through the report and ask: Did RFK Jr. bow to pressure from Big Ag? Is he more interested in cracking down on vaccine injury than high-fructose corn syrup? Also: Whole milk i...
The impact of the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown is starting to show up in new preliminary census data, and that poses major problems for all parts of U.S. society, but particularly in our food system: Nearly half the country’s food system workers are immigrants. In this episode, Helena and Theodore go through the numbers, and explain why the chances of immigration reform are going down. Also: FoodNet gets a ...
In this episode, Helena and Theodore talk about the MAHA commission’s leaked strategy report. Turns out that there’s more talk than action. Also: a former FDA chief challenges RFK Jr. to put up or shut up on ultraprocessed foods. And finally – MAGA vs. MAHA.
In this episode, Theodore and Helena discuss why the (non-vaxx) ideas of the MAHA movement are popular, but the movement itself is less so.. That split presents a major problem for Democrats, who can’t resist the Trump administration when it’s pushing for things they want. Also, does Coke taste better with cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup? The answer: they taste about the same, and people prefer Pepsi (as long as the...
The major companies that produce and sell ultraprocessed foods are making big changes, or at least they are promising to. The Trump administration has celebrated “wins” over companies as varied as PepsiCo and Steak ‘n Shake. It’s not clear whether decisions from these companies to change their products – out with synthetic dyes and in with beef tallow – are coming from pressure at the federal level, new state laws, changes...
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...
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