Vani Hari
| Vani Hari | |
|---|---|
Hari in a 2012 interview with the Charlotte Video Project
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| Born |
Vani Deva Hari March 22, 1979 Charlotte, North Carolina, United States |
| Residence | Charlotte, North Carolina, United States |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Charlotte |
| Occupation | Blogger, author, speaker, affiliate marketer |
| Known for | Food activism, pseudoscience |
| Website | www |
Vani Deva Hari (born March 22, 1979), who blogs as the Food Babe, is an American author, activist, and affiliate marketer who criticizes the food industry. She started the Food Babe blog in 2011, and it received over 54 million views in 2014.
She is a New York Times best-selling author, and companies such as Chick-fil-A and Kraft may have changed or reconsidered ingredients in their products as a result of her campaigns.
Hari's ideas on food safety have been criticized by scientists as pseudoscience and chemophobia, and others have drawn attention to her financial interest through promotion and marketing of natural foods.
Born in Charlotte, North Carolina to Indian immigrant parents from Punjab, India, Hari first attended the University of Georgia before transferring to University of North Carolina at Charlotte. After graduating in 2001 with a degree in computer science, she worked as a management consultant for Accenture. In her early 20s Hari was hospitalized with appendicitis. In response, she began looking into health and nutrition issues. She started the Food Babe blog in 2011, and left Accenture in 2012 to devote her time to activism and blogging, as well as marketing dietary and other products. By 2014, her blog was receiving over 54 million views. Hari has over 97,000 Twitter followers, and an official Facebook page with over one million likes. She refers to her followers and supporters as the "Food Babe Army."
In 2011, Hari wrote a piece about ingredients in Chick-fil-A sandwiches which she alleged to be harmful. Chick-fil-A responded to Hari's post in May 2012, inviting her to its headquarters in Atlanta to discuss her concerns. As part of a larger effort to improve the nutrition of their products, Chick-fil-A announced in late 2013 it was removing dyes, corn syrup, and TBHQ from their products. They also announced a plan to only use within the next five years.
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