By Michele Payn | causematters.com

A nine-year-old girl in northern Michigan cried with anxiety before school because she was afraid of what her teacher would say about her midmorning snack.

A mom in Australia received a note home from her child’s kindergarten – written in red ink, with a large red frowny face at the top – because she had packed a slice of leftover homemade birthday cake.

A woman at a self-checkout lane had a box of cereal pulled out of her hands by a well-meaning grocery store employee who had heard there might be Roundup in the product.

Each of these people did nothing wrong. Each of them felt shamed anyway. And each of them is navigating a food environment that has become so saturated with judgment, fear, and competing claims that the simple act of feeding a child has become a source of anxiety rather than nourishment.

This is food bullying. And it is doing real, measurable harm to real people.

I have spent more than two decades connecting farm and food, collecting hundreds of food bullying stories from friends, audience members, farmers, dietitians, and consumers across North America. What I hear, over and over, is not confusion about which label to choose. It is exhaustion. Guilt. The feeling that no matter what you put on the table, someone is going to tell you it is wrong.

This article is about where that guilt comes from, what it is doing to your health, and how to put it down.

How your brain gets wired for food guilt

Food guilt does not arise naturally. It is engineered.

Every time a food company, activist organization, wellness influencer, or well-meaning friend implies that your food choices are morally, environmentally, or nutritionally inferior, your brain files that away. Psychologists call this affective conditioning – the transfer of feeling from one thing to another through repeated association. When you repeatedly see positive imagery associated with certain foods and shame, illness, or environmental destruction associated with others, those emotional associations become encoded. You stop evaluating food rationally and start evaluating it emotionally – often without realizing it.

Research from Psychology Today confirms that people will choose a product paired with positive imagery 70 to 80 percent of the time, even when they have information suggesting another product is objectively better. Research from Leeds University found that people will avoid foods with negative connotative associations even when they believe those foods are nutritious and safe. Your feelings about food have become a more powerful driver of your choices than your knowledge about food. And the food industry, the wellness industry, and the activist community know it.

The Maslow problem in food

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs identifies a progression from physiological survival at the base through safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Food is, at its most fundamental, a physiological need – nourishment, plain and simple. It is also, in the current environment, a vehicle for belonging (what will my friends think of what I eat?) and esteem (does my food reflect my values?).

The moment food ceases to be about nourishment and starts being about social acceptance and moral identity, it becomes vulnerable to bullying. Bullying most often targets belonging and esteem needs – exactly the two levels that dominate the current food conversation. When a playgroup establishes that only organic snacks are acceptable, the belonging need is being weaponized. When a brand markets its product as reflecting your values and implies competitors’ products do not, the esteem need is being exploited. None of this is serving your nutritional needs.

What food guilt is actually doing to your health

The health consequences of chronic food guilt are documented, specific, and serious. Research shows that negative feelings about food – guilt, fear, shame, and judgment – have measurable consequences for physical health. When you eat with anxiety, your parasympathetic nervous system cannot trigger its relaxation response, which means digestion is impaired. You absorb fewer nutrients from the same food.

A study of iron absorption found that when people ate food from an unfamiliar cuisine, they absorbed less iron than when eating familiar food they enjoyed and felt comfortable eating. Enjoyment of food is not a frivolous preference. It is physiologically relevant to how much nutrition you actually extract from what you consume.

There is also a satisfaction dimension. People who are not fully satisfied with what they eat – because they are eating something they feel they “should” eat rather than something that meets their actual needs – are more likely to overeat later. The restrict-binge cycle that drives the $64 billion weight loss industry is, in significant part, a product of food guilt. This cycle is not a failure of willpower. It is a predictable outcome of a food environment designed to make you feel bad.

Orthorexia – when healthy eating becomes harmful

Orthorexia nervosa is an eating disorder defined by an obsessive focus on eating foods one considers healthy, to the point of significant distress or functional impairment. Social media posts featuring elaborate, expensive meal preparation may increase orthorexic tendencies, according to nutrition experts. When a constant stream of content implies that the “right” way to eat is extraordinarily precise, expensive, and labor-intensive, it creates a standard that most people cannot meet and an implicit judgment of everything that falls short.

The truth is that the box of dinosaur egg oatmeal was safe, nutritious, and a perfectly reasonable breakfast. The leftover birthday cake was food made with love by a present, caring parent. The snack a nine-year-old was afraid to take to school was food. Not a moral statement. Not a political position. Food.

The special cruelty of food guilt for families with less

The food guilt conversation is, in many ways, a conversation happening from a position of economic privilege. And it is important to name that directly.

Research from a Stanford sociologist found that junk food represented something specific for low-income parents: one of the few things they could say “yes” to. When a parent can pull together a dollar for a bag of chips when their child wants something, that moment of yes carries genuine emotional weight. “They want it, they’ll get it,” one low-income single mother told the researcher. “One day they’ll know. They’ll know I love them, and that’s all that matters.”

When food guilt culture insists that parents who cannot consistently provide organic, whole, unprocessed food are somehow inadequate, it is making a moral judgment about people doing their absolute best under conditions the people making that judgment rarely face. One third of U.S. families struggle to pay for groceries. One in eight people in the United States and Canada lives without food security. The food guilt that permeates the middle- and upper-income food conversation is, for many families, an unaffordable luxury. Food first. Guilt never.

How the food conversation shames parents specifically

The organic baby food conversation – the one where two mothers gently but unmistakably make the third mother feel that her store-brand baby food is inadequate – is extremely common. The mother who walks away feeling judged is not being oversensitive. She has just been socially excluded over a jar of baby food that contains the same nutrients as the one the other mothers are buying at three times the price.

There is no meaningful nutritional difference between organic and conventionally produced baby food. Organic is a farming certification, not a nutrition certification. The judgment being exercised is not about the baby’s health. It is about social identity and the implied value of spending more – which, in a room where one mother cannot afford to, is a form of cruelty.

Putting down the guilt – a practical framework

Get back to the basics. The fundamental question for any food choice is: is this food nutritious and safe? Not: does this food signal my values? Not: will this food invite judgment? Is it nutritious and safe? If the answer is yes, the rest is noise.

Recognize the engineering. Food guilt does not arise spontaneously. It is manufactured by people who profit from your anxiety. When you feel guilty about food, ask who generated that guilt and what they stand to gain.

Find your actual experts. A registered dietitian nutritionist has the clinical training to help you understand how food choices interact with your specific health needs. She is the right voice on nutrition questions – not the wellness blogger, the gym influencer, or the other parent in the playgroup.

Food is nourishment, tradition, pleasure, and connection. It is the center of celebrations and the comfort of ordinary Tuesday evenings. It is not a battleground. It is not a moral test. And you do not deserve to feel guilty about it.

Resources

• Find a registered dietitian nutritionist: eatright.org
• National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline: 1-866-662-1235 or allianceforeatingdisorders.com
• Safe Fruits & Veggies Calculator: safefruitsandveggies.com
• https://causematters.com/food-myths-food-truths/

Michele Payn is one of North America’s leading voices in connecting farm and food. She is the author of Food Bullying: How to Avoid Buying B.S., a gold medal winner in the IPPY Awards and a resource for farmers, dietitians, food professionals, and consumers navigating a noisy food landscape. Learn more at causematters.com.

These are essential facts to remember as agriculture faces unprecedented times with low exports, unstable markets, irregular policy, high inputs, and price gouging. Spring is typically a time of hope and joy in planting, but 2026 feels different.

Putting seeds in the ground is one of the greatest acts of faith there is, but your faith may be a little shaken with fertilizer, diesel, chemical, and fuel costs sky rocketing – forcing a change in practices this year. Diseases have wreaked havoc within animal agriculture. Mother Nature has wielded a heavy hand between frosts in the deep south, fires in the plains, floods out west, blizzards up north, and drought in many places – all out of our control. It will be O.K.

All of this means that you have chronic stress. A LOT of stress – and that is normal. It doesn’t make it easier, but know you are not alone in dealing with stress. This leaves your brain with cortisol flowing. Consider stressed out animals or crops – we do something about it rather than letting it languish. The same is true with you.

First, if you have considered harming yourself or know someone in that situation - dial or text 988 for professional help. Again, your life matters a lot more than your balance sheet. Get help - it is a sign of strength, not weakness. Find resources here.

Last week I learned a 21 year-old dairy farmer died by suicide, which led me to write this as a reminder to farmers and ranchers everywhere to treat yourself like you would an animal under stress. A key is managing your own cortisol, which can shrink your brain and affect future generation's ability to handle stress. Getting sleep is first on the list - and if you’re not sleeping at least 6 hours/night, please talk to your doctor – it really is that important to your emotional well-being and ability to make business decisions.

Did you know intentional exercise for at least 20 minutes will drop your cortisol - and introduce happy hormones? Intentional does not me checking cattle - it means focusing on exercising your body. Eating lots of color (AKA fruits and veggies) and fiber can also help your brain and body better manage stress, while protein is essential to the neural pathways in your brain – Doritos are not.

Your social circles provide support in talking about stressors, but also serve as chance to get away from the farm or ranch.You cannot go this alone. Taking a break away from your business is essential to gaining perspective – and the business can run without you for a few hours. It’s more important to care for yourself. Here’s a few more tips if you need them.

The people producing our food need to remember the humans in agriculture are our first priority. We do honorable work with some of the best in the world – and need to focus on our “why” in tough times. Your life is more important than your work, your family needs you, and you matter to your community. You will make it through these tough times. If you doubt any of those, please talk about it ASAP with a friend, clergy member, or professional.

Let’s sow hope this spring, not bury more farmers.

Please pass this on to someone who needs to be reminded: your life matters more than your business.

Mitchell Searle eats raw potatoes straight out of the field during harvest. Just rubs the dirt off and bites in. He doesn't hesitate when asked if that's really true.

It's the most direct answer possible to the question of whether Idaho farmers trust the food they grow.

Searle farms in southern Idaho with his father and brother, part of a family that has worked the same land for over 100 years. He holds a degree in soil science and agronomy, grows eight different crops in rotation, and thinks about sustainability not as a marketing term but as the central question of every single workday: is what I'm doing today going to hold up tomorrow, next season, and for the generation after mine?

He joined the Food Bullying Podcast to set the record straight on chemicals, soil health, crop rotation, and why the potato – America's most popular vegetable – deserves a better reputation than it currently gets.

Are potatoes a vegetable or a grain? The answer matters more than you think

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has considered classifying potatoes as a grain, primarily because of their carbohydrate and starch content. Searle is blunt about what he believes is driving that conversation: competitive pressure from other commodity groups who would benefit from displacing the potato's status as America's favorite vegetable.

From a nutritional standpoint, the vegetable classification is the right one. Potatoes contain more potassium than bananas, earn the American Heart Association's heart-healthy certification, and have received the American Diabetes Association's endorsement as meeting nutritional guidelines for people managing blood sugar. The Idaho Potato Commission worked directly with both organizations to conduct the research and secure those designations – not through marketing, but through documented nutritional evidence.

The grain reclassification debate is a policy fight dressed up as a science question. Knowing that context is useful for dietitians who advise patients and need to explain why the potato deserves a place on the plate.

The chemicals myth – addressed by someone who uses them

The most persistent misconception Searle hears: that potato farmers are spraying toxic chemicals freely, poisoning consumers, and depleting the land. His response is straightforward. He's been farming the same ground for decades. His family has been farming it for over a century. Nobody with a multi-generational stake in a piece of land farms it recklessly.

Everything Searle grows, he eats. The beef his family raises. The potatoes he harvests. If he had concerns about what was in the food, he'd stop growing it the way he grows it.

The economics reinforce the point. Agricultural inputs – fertilizers, pesticides, fumigants – are expensive. Applying more than necessary isn't just bad for the land; it's bad for the business. Farmers use what they need, when they need it, and calibrate constantly to use less. Searle has soil tested before every potato crop to determine nematode pressure precisely so he can adjust chemical inputs accordingly – or skip them entirely if the test shows they're not warranted.

The trend over his career has been consistently in one direction: less water, fewer passes across the field, less tillage, reduced chemical inputs, better precision. Agriculture is getting better at doing more with less. That story rarely surfaces in the same social media feeds carrying the chemicals-in-food narrative.

How potato farming actually protects soil health

Searle has a soil science degree and he uses it. His approach to soil health is structural, not incidental.

Five-year crop rotation: Every field on Searle's operation returns to potatoes only once every five years. The intervening crops – sugar beets, wheat, barley, corn, alfalfa, dry edible beans, oats – break disease and pest cycles because pathogens that thrive in one crop can't sustain themselves through a diverse rotation. The longer the rotation, the lower the pressure when potatoes return.

No-till and strip-till: Avoiding tillage maintains soil cover, reduces erosion, and preserves the soil structure that holds water and supports biological activity. Searle has moved toward no-till and strip-till specifically to protect the soil resource that his family's next 100 years depends on.

Soil testing before every crop: Before a field returns to potatoes, Searle tests both nutrient levels and nematode pressure. The results determine exactly what inputs are needed – and what can be skipped. This precision-based approach is the opposite of the "willy-nilly" chemical application that critics assume.

Water efficiency: Searle's valley transitioned from flood irrigation to sprinkler systems, with efficiency gains he describes as dramatic. Water use has declined substantially while yields have improved – another example of agriculture doing more with less over time.

The emerging frontier: soil biology over soil chemistry

Searle makes a distinction that's worth passing along to anyone interested in where agricultural science is headed. The chemistry side of soil management – nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur – is well understood and well-researched. What's new and genuinely exciting is the biology side: the food web within the soil, the interaction between microorganisms, beneficial nematodes, earthworms, and plant root systems.

Research into biological nematode suppression – using plants like mustard that naturally emit compounds through their roots to suppress harmful nematode populations – represents a direction where farming can reduce chemical dependency by working with natural biological processes rather than against them. Searle, who still uses fumigants when nematode testing warrants it, is watching this space closely and considers it the most promising area of agricultural research for the coming decades.

For anyone considering agricultural research as a field: he recommends looking at soil biology, not soil chemistry. The chemistry is largely solved. The biology is just beginning.

From seed to harvest: what a potato season actually looks like

Potato planting starts in early April in southern Idaho. The seed isn't a seed in the botanical sense – it's a tuber, a clone of the mother plant. New varieties are developed at the academic level, bred for drought tolerance or disease resistance, ramped up in production, and eventually reach commercial growers like Searle through certified seed growers who specialize in producing tubers for sale.

Planting takes two to three weeks depending on weather. From there: weed management, irrigation throughout the growing season, and waiting. Yield builds as long as the tubers are in the ground. In early September, Searle's team mechanically beats down the vines – essentially mowing them off with a rotating drum – which signals the potatoes underground to harden their skins in preparation for harvest. Two to three weeks later, harvest begins and runs through early October before sugar beet harvest follows.

The timing is a calculated risk every year. Wait as long as possible to maximize yield. Finish before the first hard freeze turns the crop to mush. Every season ends with the same calculation and a different result from the weather.

What the Idaho potato industry has done to fight back on nutrition misinformation

Potato growers didn't sit back while false nutrition narratives eroded their market. The industry organized – through the National Potato Council, Potatoes USA, and the Idaho Potato Commission – to conduct credible research, pursue legitimate health certifications, and advocate on Capitol Hill for accurate policy treatment.

The result: bags of Idaho potatoes now carry the American Heart Association heart-healthy seal and the American Diabetes Association certification. Those aren't marketing claims. They're earned designations based on nutritional evidence the potato industry pursued specifically because it was tired of watching false science go unchallenged.

For dietitians, these certifications are a credible, vetted shorthand to point patients toward when the potato's health value comes up in conversation.

Connect with Mitchell Searle: Find him on LinkedIn and Facebook under Mitchell Searle. For potato nutrition information, recipes, and research, visit potatoesusa.com, the Idaho Potato Commission, and the National Potato Council.

Want to bring the real story of sustainable farming and food science to your next agricultural or dietitian event? Michele Payn speaks to agricultural organizations, agribusinesses, and dietitian associations on food bullying, consumer trust, and the science behind modern food production. Book Michele to speak →

In this episode of the Food Bullying podcast, Nicole and Michele chat with Sarah Hovinga of Bayer Crop Science in California and Bryan Sanders of HSE-UAV in Washington about how precision agriculture is transforming farming.

According to Sanders, drones REDUCE 1) the amount (and cost) of pesticides used 2) human exposure by keeping the applicator away from the actual pesticide (since the drone is doing the spraying) and 3) pesticide drift thanks to the intentional downward movement the propellers create which helps push the pesticide into the crop with centimeter level accuracy. Drones also help by creating good-paying tech jobs in farming, inspiring young people to get into farming - but he says consumer misunderstanding of the role of pesticides in our food system still runs rampant.

“Blaming and pointing the finger at farmers, applicators, and the chemical industry is an easy and popular narrative that anti-agriculture groups promote which helps them in turn gain funding from their sponsors,” says Hovinga.

The reality? Hovinga shares the following: “My friend once asked me: ‘I am so confused, what food in the store is safe to eat?’ Do you know what I told her? ‘Everything.' And it's because of the robust regulations around food in the United States. How cool is that?”

We think it’s very cool indeed. We also think dietitians and those who prioritize nutrition need to understand where the future of agriculture is going to help reduce fear-mongering. Who can you share this episode with? 

Sarah does a lot on social media under the AgScienceMom handle - be sure to check it out for great examples of precision agriculture in action. You can find her on Instagram,  LInkedin at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahhovinga/, Facebook, and Twitter.

Bryan loves technology that flies, but isn't as active on social media. However, his company has accounts across all social media channels under HSE-UAV where you can see drones in action.  

“Pork still has the perception of not being a good dietary choice,” says Merritt. “Consumers think chicken is the only healthy meat available to them. A boneless pork loin as the same amount of fat as a skinless chicken breast.”

She talks through pig squeals, animal care, Indiana's infamous pork loins, environmental improvements in farming, and why Proposition 12 in California has been a factor in driving up pork prices. 

A 4th generation pig, corn, soybean, and wheat farmer, Merritt proudly raises three kids with her husband, Rusty, where at least two of them want to be the 5th generation on the farm and the other wants to be an ag education teacher. She has spent her entire career serving agriculture.

Merritt encourages consumers and dietitians to familiarize themselves with Pork’s We Care Principles.  She also hopes that these principles - centered around food safety, community, environment, animal welfare, people, and public health - will encourage the next generation to explore opportunities in agriculture.

“Overall, we have a labor shortage, as much of agriculture is dealing with. We need younger people to come in and want to be involved in pork production!” says Merritt.

Follow Indiana Pork on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok. 

In this candid conversation, Michele and Nicole take a deeper dive into the impact of the yet-to-passed Farm Bill, consumer demand, and the ensuing stress on farmers. They talk food insecurity, inflation, farming practices, and nutrition myths in this episode of the Food Bullying podcast.

Offering perspectives from their respective fields, Michele and Nicole also discuss the weight of dis- and misinformation on their personal and professional lives.

On a lighter note, the two share recent recipe wins to give listeners ideas for their own kitchen.

In this candid conversation, Michele and Nicole take a deeper dive into the impact of the yet-to-passed Farm Bill, consumer demand, and the ensuing stress on farmers. They talk food insecurity, inflation, farming practices, and nutrition myths in this episode of the Food Bullying podcast.

Offering perspectives from their respective fields, Michele and Nicole also discuss the weight of dis- and misinformation on their personal and professional lives.

On a lighter note, the two share recent recipe wins to give listeners ideas for their own kitchen.

Is eating well on a budget…impossible?  Dr. Keith Ayoob, EdD, RDN, FAND, CDN, is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the department of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY, where, for over 30 years he directed a nutrition clinic for children with special needs. Dr. Ayoob has also worked with numerous commodity and nutrition organizations to help dispel nutrition myths and misconceptions. 

Sharing his own experiences as a graduate student and drawing on his vast work experience in the poorest congressional district in the nation, Dr. Ayoob has come to the conclusion that it is indeed possible to eat well on a tight budget, despite the common misconception that it has to be “complicated and expensive.”

“NONE of my families can afford organic foods or even farmer’s market foods - and they don’t have to in order to be healthy and feed their families well,” says Dr. Ayoob.

Highlighting the importance of meeting patients where they are (both literally - as in where they shop, and figuratively, as in where they are in their respective health journeys), Dr. Ayoob discusses the importance of cultural sensitivity when making dietary recommendations, and that having a deeper understanding of agriculture can help dietitians inspire confidence in their patients.

Listen in as Dr. Ayoob offers tips on food modeling, critical thinking, his top five "super foods", thoughts on plant-based diets, social media, and more. "My body is not a trend" sums up his thinking.

Visit his website www.cuttothechasenutrition.com, and find him on X.

Eggs and beef are safe – and a Kentucky farmer is here to tell you why

Bishop frames the plant-based narrative as a marketing success that has come at the expense of nutritional clarity. His comparison is straightforward: animal protein in its whole form is one ingredient. A typical plant-based meat alternative lists 38 to 50.

Animal proteins – beef, pork, chicken, eggs – don't need to be processed, fortified, or engineered to be nutritious. They arrive that way. The push to position plant-based products as the sustainable, health-forward alternative obscures that fact, and it's one Bishop sees reinforced constantly through social media algorithms that spread misleading information faster than accurate context can follow.

His message for dietitians: help patients look at ingredient lists before accepting a "healthy" label at face value. One ingredient versus fifty is a meaningful starting point.

Regenerative agriculture: what farmers were already doing

When "regenerative agriculture" became a buzzword, Bishop's first reaction was skepticism – not because the practices are wrong, but because they describe what farmers have been doing for generations without needing a name for it.

On his poultry operation, he practiced rotational grazing, introduced companion sheep that benefited the birds and helped deter predators, planted fruit trees for shade and supplemental nutrition, and ran a three-year soil testing program that documented measurable improvement in grass and soil health year over year. On his cattle operation, pastures get at least 30 days of rest between grazing rotations to maintain ground cover, prevent erosion, and allow grasses to sequester carbon back into the soil.

That carbon sequestration piece matters for the sustainability conversation. Properly managed grazing land actively pulls carbon from the atmosphere and deposits it in the soil, where it feeds microorganisms that support plant growth that feeds animals that feed people. The cycle is self-sustaining when managed correctly – which is exactly what regenerative agriculture describes, and what good farmers have practiced long before the term existed.

Farming as a life curriculum

Bishop's four children are embedded in the operation. His oldest daughter is at the barn by 6 a.m. before school, washing and feeding cattle, and back again off the bus until 9 or 10 at night. His son came home recently talking about winning a PlayStation 5 at school – not to keep it, but to sell it, because he already knows they stay outside.

The argument Bishop makes for raising children on a farm isn't sentimental – it's practical. Animals require daily care regardless of weather, mood, or convenience. Watching a difficult calving, managing sick animals, and taking responsibility for a living creature's welfare builds a kind of accountability that's hard to replicate. These kids understand where food comes from and what it costs to produce it. That understanding, Bishop suggests, is exactly what the gap between farmers and consumers needs more of.

How a farmer and beef board chair shops for groceries

Bishop buys on price and on knowledge. He sells freezer beef directly from his farm and knows his own product meets the standard he'd set for his family. When he buys from a store, he buys with confidence – not because he's dismissing quality, but because he knows the farmers producing that product nationwide are operating under the same values he applies at Fairfield Farms.

His confidence in the conventional food supply isn't blind. It comes from working directly with farmers and ranchers across the country in his lending role and through the beef board. He knows who is growing this food and how seriously they take it. That's the foundation for buying an egg from any grocery store carton without anxiety.

Connect with Andy Bishop: Find Fairfield Farms Angus on Instagram and Andy on Facebook.

Want to bring farmer perspectives and animal protein science to your next event? Michele Payn speaks to agricultural organizations, agribusinesses, and dietitian associations on food bullying, consumer trust, and the science behind modern farming. Book Michele to speak →