Farm to Fatal: Food for Thought
Is our food safe? Would you know if it is? Follow UCLA undergrads as they explore a dozen foodborne outbreaks and their consequences.
In Farm to Fatal, twelve different outbreaks illuminate the biology of foodborne illness, the complexity of modern food safety regulation, and the details of how we make food safe... or fail to. In Winter 2025, UCLA undergrads in the Human Biology and Society major set out to explore the intricacies of food safety in the US. Each group explored an outbreak over the last 30 years, diving into the details of the bacteriology, the illness and the treatments on the one hand, and the insanely complex system of governance, audit, oversight, lawsuits and regulations. Dive into every corner of the food safety world, from e. Coli to Hepatitis A, from South Africa to Arizona, from the challenge of regulating raw milk to the difficulties of cleaning tanker trucks, from the "sewer state" to problem of "organized non-knowledge". Across the episodes students find a new respect for the challenge of governing food, the problems with the existing system, and also the need to defend it.
Farm to Fatal: Food for Thought
Failed State, Contaminated Plate: the 2024 Listeria Outbreak
How did a beloved deli meat brand become the center of a deadly nationwide food safety crisis?
The 2024 Boar’s Head listeria outbreak exposed alarming flaws in the U.S. food safety system. In this episode, we uncover how a tangled web of decentralized regulation failed to prevent contaminated products from reaching consumers.
In this episode, we explore regulatory failures behind the deadly Boar’s Head listeria outbreak. With insights from Diana Winters, deputy director of the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy, we examine the shortcomings of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system and the role of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in deli meat oversight. We discuss how decentralized regulation and limited governmental resources contributed to the outbreak. This episode sheds light on the underlying flaws in the U.S. food safety system and poses the questions: who was in the wrong in the Boar 's Head case, and what can be done to prevent similar outbreaks in the future? Tune in as we dive into the complexities of food safety regulation and the lessons we can learn from the Boar 's Head incident to strengthen our food safety system.
Produced by Hannah Jin, Myra Xu, and Isabella Yuan
Special thanks to Christopher Kelty, Alexandra Boesel, and Diana Winters.
These podcast episodes were created by members of the 2025 Winter Capstone course in the Human Biology and Society major at UCLA's Institute for Society and Genetics (https://socgen.ucla.edu/). The faculty sponsor is Christopher Kelty. For questions or concerns email ckelty@ucla.edu.