We’re closing out the season with a look at “True Cost Accounting.” There is a growing movement to include “true cost accounting” or TCA when considering the cost of food -- which can be far more than what you pay in a supermarket.  Our guest today, food journalist and The Farm Report host Lisa Held is quite familiar with that report and cited it in her article for Civil Eats entitled “Can Accounting for the True Cost of Food Change the Global Food System?” Learn more about your ad-choices...

Tom and Food Research and Action Center Ellen Vollinger and Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern discuss the historic permanent increase to the decades-old Thrifty Food Plan coming in October 2021. Follow Tom on Twitter and Instagram @tomcolicchio and share what you want to hear with hashtag #CitizenChef. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Tom talks with food critic and A Hungry Society Podcast host Korsha Wilson about supporting black culinary artists and relishing American dining experiences. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Tom and Giving Kitchen co-founder Jen Hidinger-Kendrick discuss the state of mental health in the restaurant industry, how the pandemic has added pressure and hardship to some circumstances, and what Giving Kitchen does to support people in the restaurant industry. We learn how Giving Kitchen reaches food service workers, and discuss common issues affecting an industry that offers a comfort to so many. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Tom talks with Hudson Valley Seed Company Co-Founder and Creative Director Ken Greene about heirlooms, seed sovereignty and how seeds reflect human history. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Tom and Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon have a wide-ranging discussion about where legislation around environment and food intersect. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Reclaiming the food you threw away and up cycling it into nutrient-dense animal feed. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Tom Colicchio and Bowery Farming's Irving Fain discuss the future of the food supply chain. Tom spotlights how the visionary's food company uses indoor farming technologies to grow nutritious food in a water-saving, pesticide-free environment. And they're not just growing food at Bowery Farming, they're also fostering avenues for people across the Northeast region and beyond to access and enjoy an array of tasty biodiversity. Learn more about Bowery at boweryfarming.com/vision. Learn more...

Sometimes our neighborhood eateries make us gather beyond the meal. In this episode, Pinky Cole of Slutty Vegan ATL joins Tom to talk about her plant-based pursuit of doing just that despite the pandemic. The entrepreneur and philanthropist explains how her suite of expanding vegan dining experiences feeds food insecure communities, and even fights for equal voting rights with a Side Heaux and fries. Follow Tom on Twitter and Instagram @tomcolicchio and share what you want to hear with...

Welcome back from a long holiday! Chef Andrea Drummer is the woman behind The Original Cannabis Cafe in West Hollywood, which is the first cafe in that city licensed to serve cannabis along with its menu. We’re going to talk to her about pioneering a new segment of the two industries, and how exactly one orchestrates pairings that feel more like ordering from a sommelier as opposed to a liquor store. We also talk to Senator Kim Jackson of Georgia, who was elected to the State Senate this...

Kathleen Merrigan was the United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture from 2009 to 2013 and is now the Executive Director at Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University. She is an advocate for organic farming, worked with Michelle Obama on the Let’s Move campaign, and while working at the USDA she shaped the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative. Not only is she the person with all the answers, she also is the person who knows the right questions to ask -...

Welcome back to Citizen Chef! After wrapping last season, Tom Colicchio has been working tirelessly with the Independent Restaurant Coalition to lobby for funding to help save our restaurants. This week, catches up with one of the key allies of the bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. They discuss why the money is necessary to revitalizing the restaurant industry and how it will help our neighborhoods bounce back from losses due to the pandemic.. (Recorded May 11, 2021) Resources:...

Chef Tom Colicchio (Top Chef) is back with conversations about the policies that shape how the U.S. food system works. Join Tom as we head into the summer with fresh takes on the future of farming, the restaurant industry and access to nutritious food during a pandemic. Follow Tom on Twitter and Instagram @tomcolicchio and share what you want to hear with hashtag #CitizenChef. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Citizen Chef will be back soon! Chef and food activist Tom Colicchio and executive producer Christopher Hassiotis catch up on the long year behind us and the work ahead. Follow Tom on Instagram and Twitter @tomcolicchio and tell us what you want to hear with #CitizenChef. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Hey, Citizen Chefs! In case you missed it, here's a replay of Tom's guest appearance on iHeartRadio's Why I'm Voting podcast. Take a listen and don't forget to vote on election day 2020! If you want to change, preserve, or build a better America, there’s one easy way to make your voice heard: Vote. This year, iHeartRadio is teaming up with over 20 incredible celebrities (plus a handful of our most popular podcasters) to get the country excited to go vote, broadcasting the personal, emotional...

How To Citizen with Baratunde reimagines the word “citizen” as a verb and reminds us how to wield our collective power. So many of us want to do more in response to the problems we hear about constantly, but where and how to participate can leave us feeling overwhelmed and helpless. Voting, while critically important, simply isn’t enough. It takes more to make this experiment in self-governance work! Listen in to learn new perspectives and practices from people working to improve society for...

In early March, slim pickings on grocery store shelves, news of meat plant shutdowns, skyrocketing demand for food bank services, predictions of supply chain breakdown and food shortages drove many Americans to do what we haven't collectively done since WWII: plant home gardens. Tom checks in with journalist Morgan Levey about the boom in seed sales and interest in home gardening. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Tom Colicchio talks with "Free for All: Fixing School Food in America" author, Dr. Janet Poppendieck about the history and future of school lunch programs. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

What do chefs and the food industry owe black Americans? Tom Colicchio talks with chef and historian Michael Twitty about the effects of racist systems on American foodways and how food and culinary history could be addressed through the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Americans aren't hungry because of drought or famine. Some say Americans are hungry because there isn't political will to make sure everyone is fed. How did we get here? In this episode, Tom Colicchio adds a chapter in his food policy primer season. He's joined by Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, who provides a short lesson in U.S. nutrition assistance programs and the future of fighting food insecurity in America. Learn more about your ad-choices at...

Tom chats with food and agriculture journalist Leah Douglas about the role of corporate concentration in the food system. Since April 2020, Douglas has mapped outbreaks of COVID-19 among workers at meat packing and meat processing plants across the nation. They discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has brought longstanding concerns around health and safety in meat processing plants to light. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Small food suppliers like oyster farmers and cheesemakers are really who set restaurants apart. In most cases, a majority of what they produce is sold to restaurants. But with the pandemic, many restaurants have closed -- and when restaurants close these small businesses are left without a market. Tom Colicchio talks to Peter Stein of Peeko Oysters and Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farms about how they've changed their business models. Learn more about your ad-choices at...

In this stripped-down episode, Tom Colicchio talks to Gerardo Reyes Chavez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers about the work leading towards systemic solutions to end modern-day slavery and put a stop to crimes against growers across the food system. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Tom Colicchio talks to Dr. Angela Stuesse (Scratching Out a Living: Latinos, Race, and Work in the Deep South) and investigative reporter Alissa Zhu about the largest single-state immigration enforcement operation in our country's history and the conditions workers in poultry processing plants often work in. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers