MELINDA HEMMELGARN, M.S., R.D., L.D.
“Food Sleuth®,” LLC … “Helping people think beyond their plates”

Melinda Hemmelgarn is a registered dietitian, “investigative nutritionist,” and award-winning writer and radio host, better known as “the Food Sleuth.” With 30 years’ experience in clinical, academic and public health nutrition, she’s a trusted consumer advocate and educator.

Prior to her freelance writing and speaking career, Melinda developed and directed the Nutrition Communications Center at the University of Missouri, where she discovered the potential of using media literacy to combat childhood obesity. In 2004, she received a Food and Society Policy Fellowship which allowed her to connect the dots between food, health and agriculture. Today she uniquely applies critical thinking skills to media messages about food and farm policy to advance “food system literacy.”

Melinda works creatively with her photographer husband on a project called, “F.A.R.M.:” -Food, Art, Revolution, Media – A Focus on Photography to Re-Vitalize Agriculture and Strengthen Democracy.”  Their mission: use the synergistic power of compelling images and farmers’ stories to influence public opinion, and shape agriculture and health policy.

Melinda is also the host of Food Sleuth Radio, a syndicated Pacifica program, which ranks among the top national “green food radio shows,” and won 1st place for radio interview from the National Federation of Press Women.

For 20 years, Melinda wrote a weekly column for the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune. She has published articles in the American Journal of Nursing, Today’s Dietitian, Natural Awakenings, ACRES, Current Health, and Edible Communities magazine; blogs for Stonyfield Farm, and writes a monthly online column for Organic Valley. She also serves on the Boards of the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, and the Organic Farming and Research Foundation.

Melinda is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, National Association for Media Literacy Education, and the American Dietetic Association’s Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Practice Group.

Education:
B.S., Dietetics, Florida State University.
Dietetic Internship: Cornell University’s dietetic internship at the New York Hospital.
M.S., Human Nutrition and Food Systems, University of Missouri – Columbia.

Contact: foodsleuth@gmail.com;  573-449-3720
Food Sleuth Radio: www.kopn.org  
Food Sleuth Blog: http://food-sleuth.blogspot.com