Beyond Data Management Podcast

Matt Geller is back — National Food Truck Association, Best Food Trucks, Revolution Carts — recorded live at GEHA 2026 at Lake Lanier.
This one is not a “how to start a food truck” episode. It’s a field report from the biggest mobile-vending mess in the country.

LA County paid for 125 permitted carts to get unpermitted vendors into the formal economy. Most of them are still sitting in a warehouse. An NGO was paid $1.2 million to get paperwork signed. Eight vendors made it through. Enforcement of unpermitted vending was paused. Meanwhile 15,000–30,000 unpermitted vendors are operating every day — no sinks, no commissary, no A grade — and permitted operators are competing against people who follow none of the rules.

Matt also breaks:
Kansas City’s 300-foot “no trucks near restaurants” rule
Home Depot’s national push to put permitted carts in front of stores
How ChatGPT sent Apple to Best Food Trucks
Feeding Boeing’s Everett plant (the building that spans two counties)
A new app that lets permitted trucks photo-report unpermitted vendors and heat-map problem corridors for health departments

Plus the advice he actually gives people who want to start a cart: know your numbers, test throughput with 20 friends, and don’t price off pre-cook weight.

If you work in environmental health, this is the episode that explains why “just give them a cart” fails without enforcement, education, and a real path into the formal economy.

Recorded at the Georgia Environmental Health Association 2026 conference.

Afdo.org/training 

0:00 Intro
0:20 Live from GEHA 2026 with Matt Geller
1:03 National Food Truck Association + Kansas City’s 300-foot rule
2:04 Georgia laws, Home Depot, and the tamale-to-six-figures story
3:19 Revolution Carts: what they’re building
3:40 125 permitted carts for LA — most still in a warehouse
5:12 $1.2 million to hand out paperwork (8 vendors processed)
6:32 Enforcement pause, ICE, and competing with unpermitted vendors
8:29 Why vendors won’t take a free permitted cart
9:08 “Are we waiting until someone gets sick and dies?”
9:45 Two food systems: Venice gets an A, East LA gets whatever shows up
11:28 The pendulum: too strict in 2010, too loose now
13:06 Pop-up tents, no sinks, and outbreaks as a when not an if
13:52 The carrot: Home Depot, LA Metro, and county buildings
24:54 How ChatGPT sent Apple to Best Food Trucks
25:52 Feeding Boeing Everett — the building that spans two counties
28:29 What actually wins catering work (photos, signatures, not “sent from iPhone”)
30:21 From food-truck mania to part of the landscape
30:28 The operator who kept one truck unpermitted on purpose
31:33 The new app: permitted trucks report unpermitted vendors + heat maps
33:16 Advice if you want to start a cart: know your numbers
35:23 The pastrami-shrink math that killed a $5.99 sandwich
37:08 Wrap + what’s next
Shorter set if you don’t want 18 markers:
text

Beyond Data Management — powered by HS GovTech.

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

Chef John does food safety and regulatory compliance for Kroger’s Atlanta division — 182 stores across Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. Recorded live at GEHA 2026 on Lake Lanier.
He started at IBM as a statistician, took a buyout, and IBM paid for Johnson & Wales. Now he’s the chef who still cooks for TV — and the guy who trains store leaders as Certified Food Protection Managers.
In this conversation:

How Kroger’s FAST system (Food at Safe Temperatures) puts sensors every four feet and alerts when a case goes above 41°F
Freezing day-of-expiration product for Second Harvest instead of throwing it away.

A mobile grocery store for food deserts, built with the Georgia Department of Agriculture

Why Chipotle, Blue Bell, and Boar’s Head still sit in the back of consumers’ minds

Wet-aging a ribeye in cryovac, sear hot, finish at 250°F to 133

Feeding 3,500 people at South Beach Food & Wine — with food safety first 

What industry should actually do at state EH associations instead of treating inspectors like “the cops”

Live from GEHA 2026, Lake Lanier, Georgia.

Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.
Chapters

00:00 Intro — live at GEHA

00:40 “If I told them my last name…”

01:45 182 stores, three states

04:12 IBM statistician → Johnson & Wales

06:32 Shrink, food banks, Second Harvest

09:19 FAST sensors every 4 feet

11:35 Chipotle, Blue Bell, Boar’s Head

13:49 CFPM training for every store leader

15:47 Mobile grocery store / food deserts

23:50 How Chef John cooks a ribeye

28:13 King’s Hawaiian / 3,500 covers

29:17 Super Bowl and World Cup food safety

33:41 Everybody has a camera

35:02 Recipe on the front, food safety on the back
Links

AFDO Crucial Conversations — https://www.afdo.org/training/

GEHA 2026

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

Austin Haney is EHS-5, district standard trainer, data specialist — and president of the Georgia Environmental Health Association. Recorded live at GEHA 2026 on Lake Lanier.
He did not take the lunch-table path. Bachelor’s and master’s at Valdosta State. Two years of a PhD at Oregon State. One year at UF’s Whitney Marine Lab. Then 2020 hit, and he asked what he actually wanted: a job that let him come home and still matter. His old office mate at the health department said there were no openings. Called back the next day. The job had been vacant a year.
In this conversation:

The interview question he actually asked: what does a day in the life of an EHS look like?
Why the job is ServSafe + CPO + Level 2 soil classifier + chief rabies officer + mosquito ID under a microscope
12 to 15 mosquito species you see in a gravid trap — and the weird ones that show up in a light trap
The memorable inspection isn’t the disaster. It’s the third visit to a troubled restaurant when he walked in and said “fantastic” before he started
Why manager turnover broke the relationship that used to create that change
GEHA’s travel-restriction year vs. this year’s rebound — and why he’s serving a second term as president
Testing Georgia’s new statewide EHIS with 60–70 people on the call, going live in November

Live from GEHA 2026, Lake Lanier, Georgia.

Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.
Chapters

00:00 Live from Lake Lanier

00:54 EHS-5, trainer, data specialist

01:18 GEHA president

03:32 The non-traditional path

04:16 Oregon State, UF, and 2020

05:22 The office-mate phone call

06:06 “What does an EHS actually do?”

07:13 How you ID a mosquito

09:13 Rabies, septic, and every cert in the book

10:37 GEHA, travel cuts, second term

16:00 The inspection story that isn’t gory

18:31 Turnover and lost relationships

19:50 Statewide data conversion

24:02 Thanks / next guest
Links

AFDO eNews & Quick Bites — https://www.afdo.org/newsletter-updates/

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

In this episode of Beyond Data Management, recorded live at GEHA 2026 on Lake Lanier, host Cameron Garrison sits down with Galen Baxter, Director of Environmental Health for the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Galen traces an unusual path into the field: high-school military enlistment as a linguist (Arabic instead of the Russian he wanted), a short stint teaching, then health education in Tift County before becoming an environmental health specialist. He moved from rural South Georgia counties to Lowndes County manager, state food program consultant and director, DeKalb pool program manager, Fulton County EH director, and finally the state director role he’s held for nearly four years.

The conversation covers what that job actually looks like in a state with 159 counties, coast-to-mountains geography, and a metro area that briefly became “Hollywood of the South.” Galen explains how Georgia adapted rules for large-scale movie catering operations (including a visit to the Halt and Catch Fire set), created identifying stickers for production food trucks, and handled craft services versus full catering.

He also talks about the political side of state-level advocacy, working with leadership that values environmental health, the challenge of recruiting into a “hidden profession,” internships with CDC and NEHA, and two inspection stories that stuck: live bullfrogs in a restaurant cooler and a night inspection that arrived with SWAT, ATF, and DEA.

Special thanks to GEHA for inviting us to do the show live from Lake Lanier Resort.

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

In this episode of Beyond Data Management, Cameron Garrison shares his presentation from the AFDO AI in Food Safety Workshop in Columbus, OH titled: “Closing the Blind Spot.”

For years, restaurant chains and food brands have struggled to get timely, consistent access to local health inspection results. With more than 3,000 environmental health agencies using different forms, scoring systems, and food codes, the data remains fragmented. Too often, corporate food safety and QA teams first learn about serious violations through media headlines instead of their own systems.

Cameron walks through why earlier attempts (ETL feeds, public records requests, keyword matching) never scaled—and why AI changes the equation now. Semantic models can map disparate inspection findings back to a consistent standard (such as the FDA Food Code), apply brand-specific weighting, and deliver a unified national command center that sits alongside internal QA audits.

The result: faster corrective action, stronger food safety culture, and a true partnership between regulators and industry on the shared mission of protecting the public.

Whether you work in environmental health, state agriculture, or corporate food safety, this is a practical look at turning public inspection data into something both sides can actually use.
Contact Cameron 
[email protected] 
if you’d like to discuss the approach or get involved.

Special thanks to AFDO for hosting an outstanding AI in Food Safety Workshop.
#FoodSafety #AIinFoodSafety #HealthInspections #RegulatoryTech #EnvironmentalHealth #AFDO #FoodCode #QA #BeyondDataManagement

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

Cameron sits down in Kansas City, at NEHA AEC, with Dan Markowski of the American Mosquito Control Association to discuss resources for environmental health departments, CDC-funded best practices and data guidance, climate-driven mosquito range expansion, the critical role of year-round surveillance, and modern ultra-low volume adult mosquito control. Recorded live on the exhibit floor at NEHA AEC 2026 in Kansas City. Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

Cameron sits down with Claudia Riegel, Director of Mosquito & Termite Control for the City of New Orleans, to discuss her CDC Gulf South Vector project, rodent data work, program continuity since 1964, proactive media strategies, and her accidental path into vector control. Recorded live on the exhibit floor at NEHA AEC 2026 in Kansas City. Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

Cameron sits down with Beth Driscoll (Sales, Marketing & Client Success) on the NEHA AEC conference floor in Kansas City to talk purpose-built EH tech, how AI is cutting form-build and go-live times, proactive client success, and why the people in environmental health are the real tribe. A special on-the-road episode of Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected] 

Larry Ramdin, current President of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), returns to Beyond Data Management for a second conversation with host Cameron Garrison.

In this episode, Larry reflects on his year in the elected president role and digs into the core of environmental health practice: understanding cultural differences in food processes, treating education as the primary tool (with regulation as the last resort), and why EH professionals must constantly expand their knowledge across food, housing, pests, water, and more.
Key topics discussed:

A callback to the “Pig Principle” and why cultural competence matters for inspectors nationwide
Hidden operational risks (cardboard glue attracting cockroaches, rodents and car wiring)
Why environmental health is an educational discipline disguised as a regulatory one
Practical examples of teaching operators (pool chemicals, multi-unit bed bug treatment, rodent-proofing landscapes)
Communication skills and NEHA’s comic book on communicating environmental health
Successes and unfinished business from Larry’s presidential year (pillars document, data management, mold guidance, REHS exam prep tools, Colorado incorporation, international partnerships)
The Journal of Environmental Health going fully open-access and online
Empowering early-career practitioners and learning from the next generation
World Environmental Health Day (Sept 26) and claiming EH’s space in public health
Technology and AI as tools that free inspectors to focus on root causes and education
Preview of the NEHA Annual Educational Conference in Kansas City (including free registration for EHAC-accredited students)

Larry shares the note he would leave for future leaders: empower the next generation, share knowledge freely, and believe in the future of the profession.
Resources mentioned:

NEHA communication comic book (link in comments / description once available)
Student free registration details for the NEHA AEC in Kansas City
World Environmental Health Day – September 26

Like and subscribe if this conversation resonated. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
Beyond Data Management is powered by HS GovTech.
Hosted by Cameron Garrison.

Send us Fan Mail

Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected]