Kai Risdahl

Ellen Cushing wrote about the protein industrial complex in the Atlantic the other day.

Ellen, welcome to the program.

It's good to have you on.

I'm so happy to be here.

Let me just say at the outset that I have a protein shake sitting on my desk waiting for me after I get out of this interview.

And I guess my first question is, am I the problem?

Honestly, maybe.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Look, I kind of knew it when I read your piece.

Yeah.

As my piece says, America is on the brink of a protein powder shortage, I should say.

Yeah.

Demand is very high for protein powder, largely from people like you and from industrial food manufacturers who are stuffing protein into everything they possibly can right now.

And supply is not able to keep up right now.

So we're seeing prices go up, wholesale and retail, and it's going to be a little bit rough out there for you protein heads.

It's not like I'm the only one.

All right, let's back up for a minute.

So we're talking mostly about whey protein, W-H-E-Y, which used to be this thing that farmers would just like throw away.

Oh, yeah.

Whey is a byproduct of cheese making and farmers would like dump it in rivers and spray it onto their fields.