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
The Nut Job: the 2008-9 Salmonella outbreak
In this podcast, we explore the 2008-2009 salmonella outbreak, which killed nine people and sickened over 700. We explore corporate negligence, weak government oversight, and scientific limitations that contributed to the tragedy, ultimately leading to legislative and federal reforms…yet who is the true culprit of them all?
The 2008-2009 salmonella outbreak linked to Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) killed nine people, including veteran Clifford Tousignant, and infected over 700 others. PCA executives knowingly shipped contaminated peanut products, prioritizing profits over safety. The case revealed systemic failures: inadequate facility inspections, corrupted private auditing, delayed outbreak detection, and weak scientific standards. PCA's president Stewart Parnell received an unprecedented 28-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy, though not for the deaths themselves. This tragedy prompted the Obama administration to enact the Food Safety Modernization Act, shifting from reactive to preventive food safety approaches, though implementation challenges remain. The outbreak's legacy includes both legal precedent and reformed safety standards.
Produced by Cassidy Chiong, Selene Lam and Sophia Soriano
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.