#088 - Marion Nestle: Food Politics, Industry Influence, and the Fight for Public Health

#088 - Marion Nestle: Food Politics, Industry Influence, and the Fight for Public Health

From Discovering Academia by Brent Valentine & Keller Kramer

June 4, 2026 · 47 min · Episode 90

About this episode

Marion Nestle discusses the influence of food companies on public health and dietary choices.

Marion Nestle is Professor Emerita of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and one of the most cited food policy researchers in the country. Her decades of work on corporate influence, nutrition science, and agricultural policy make her one of the field's most authoritative voices. In this episode, Nestle breaks down how food companies engineer overconsumption through advertising, product placement, and strategically funded research designed to produce favorable results before the study begins. She explains why blaming individuals for poor dietary choices is an unfair ask when they're up against a $1.5 trillion industry whose entire goal is to get you to eat more of the wrong things. We also discuss the corn economy as a lens into U.S. agricultural subsidies, how a single congressional appropriations act stripped sustainability language from the 2015 Dietary Guidelines, and what it would actually take to reform a food system that isn't broken — it's working exactly as designed. For more information about this episode, see our website: https://www.discoveringacademia.com/episodes/marion-nestle This presentation is a service of Discovering Academia, and…

People in this episode

Hosts: Brent Valentine, Keller Kramer

Guest: Marion Nestle

Topics covered

  • food politics
  • public health
  • corporate influence
  • nutrition science
  • agricultural policy

Keywords

  • food politics
  • corporate influence
  • nutrition
  • public health
  • agricultural policy
  • dietary guidelines
  • overconsumption

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New York University, Discovering Academia

Products: Dietary Guidelines

Places: U.S.

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