Season 2, Episode 2 – Helena Bottemiller Evich
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Helena Bottemiller Evich is the founder and editor-in-chief of Food Fix. Most recently, she led coverage of food and agriculture issues at POLITICO for nearly a decade, winning numerous awards for her work, including a George Polk Award for a series on climate change and two James Beard Awards for features on nutrition and science. In 2022, she was a James Beard Award finalist for a deep dive on diet-related diseases and Covid-19.
Before launching POLITICO’s food policy coverage in 2013, Helena was the Washington correspondent for Food Safety News where she covered deadly foodborne illness outbreaks and the run-up to Congress passing the most significant update to food safety law in a century.
Helena is a sought-after speaker and commentator on food issues, appearing on CNN, MSNBC, CBS, BBC and NPR, among others. Her work is widely cited in the media and has also been published in the Columbia Journalism Review and on NBC News.
Born and raised in Washington state, Helena attended Claremont McKenna College, where she studied government. She now lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, toddler and tabby cat.
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Plugs:
Twitter: Helena’s page and @foodfixco
Resources:
Politico Climate Change Series
How Washington keeps America sick and fat
Diet-Related Diseases Pose a Major Risk for Covid-19. But the U.S. Overlooks Them.
The less news coverage you have, the less accountability. In a society where local news outlets are collapsing, news is becoming more and more consolidated, news mistrust is at an all time high, and outlets are dependent on corporate funding, choosing to be an independent investigative journalist is an act of serious heroism.
Today, we have Helena Bottemiller Evich, founder and editor-in-chief of Food Fix, the go-to source for food policy news and analysis. Helena is an award-winning reporter who previously led food coverage at Politico.
In this episode, Helena and Ashley dive deep into the infant formula debacle and its relationship to the larger food conversation, why food policy deserves its own beat, why Helena classifies herself as an “accidental journalist”, why media coverage in politics matters, what the investigative process looks like, how we maintain connection with people we deeply disagree with, and more.
