The Science Behind Your Salad

Latest Episodes:

Water security Apr 23, 2024

Show notes

The wettest country in the world is Columbia, which receives over 3200 ml of rain annually and the driest nation, Egypt, receives just 18 ml. Agriculture uses around 70% of the world's freshwater, and irrigated farmland is crucial in delivering, on average, double the production of rainfed farming and 40% of the world’s total food production. Jane Craigie discovers how farmers, policymakers and land investors navigate water availability and rights, and how technology helps preserve every precious drop in times of shortage, while too much rain grinds everyday farming to a halt.

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Coffee Feb 13, 2024

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More than 3 billion cups of coffee are drunk every day but how did the bean inside a fruit become synonymous with kick starting our mornings with a caffeine hit to wake us up? Jane Craigie speaks to growers and traders who explore the history and culture of coffee and look to the future when the climate and growing conditions are looking likely to become more volatile. Jane discovers how coffee can be at the heart of social enterprises, empowering female workers and enabling communities to develop a social and economic infrastructure.

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Weeds Dec 07, 2023

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Weeds are plants that are growing in the wrong place. Certain species can totally devastate farmers crops, resulting in huge losses of both productivity and income for the farmers. They can be the difference between survival and failure of a farm. But are they all bad?

Tom Radford is a forager who spends his life travelling around in his van making social media content on plants that are largely unknown but have amazing folklore attached. He talks us through some of the tastier edible species. Sledge Taylor farms cotton in Mississippi in the US; Guy Smith is an arable farmer in the Southeast of England.

Both are blighted by weeds that would, given the right conditions and without proper crop protection, put them out of business. Padma Commuri is one of the team of R&D at BASF whose job it is to strive to predict what species are coming down the line and how they will interact with a changing climate. It’s a bit of crystal ball gazing coupled with some scientific knowledge that will keep farmers in production and billions of mouths fed in the coming decades.

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Sustainable Agriculture Oct 10, 2023

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Improving the sustainability of agriculture extends far beyond the production of food, as farmers share the global challenges of climate change mitigation, increasing space for nature and protecting resources. In this episode of The Science Behind your Salad, we explore the sustainability of food, land and food packaging, as well as the role that cities play in creating sustainable food systems and how farming contributes to the sustainability of cities themselves.

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Fruit Aug 16, 2023

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Sweet and juicy, plump and delicious: In this episode of The Science Behind Your Salad we’re telling the story behind the production and innovation of fruit salad! Apples, peaches and watermelons come under the spotlight in our whistle stop tour of the sweeter crops we love to eat.

We’ll hear from the lush orchards of England, the hot and dry peach fields of Northern Greece and the growers of a brand new Watermelon variety in Brazil as we take a snapshot of fruit production and innovation across the globe.

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Food Loss and Food Waste Jun 14, 2023

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If food waste could be represented as its own country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the United States, according to the UN's environment program. Each year around 2.5 billion tons of food is lost or wasted each year, leaving roughly 3.1 billion people without sufficient nutritious food to eat. In terms of carbon footprint, the resources needed to produce this wasted food has a carbon footprint of about 3.3 billion tons of CO2.

In this episode of The Science Behind Your Salad, Jane Craigie explores ways that can help reduce the amount of food that is lost, both close to production - from farmers' fields, storage or transport, and food that is wasted from our homes - plus possible charitable and community outlets for excess food.

Jane also discovers some future crops that may also help reduce the amount of food wasted and help to feed those missing out on food: look out for water lentils and sea squirts which could be coming to a plate near you soon.

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Vegetables Apr 12, 2023

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Vegetables are at the heart of a healthy diet. They are packed with vitamins and minerals and play an essential role in our physical and mental well-being.

The global vegetable market is a multi-billion-dollar industry. For the past few decades, globalisation has enabled retailers to supply consumers with an abundant source of almost any variety of fruit and vegetables. Where once people relied on what could be grown in their locality at specific times of the year, now we don’t have to wait. But as the world changes and resources become scarcer, is there a role for increasing production of what’s able to be grown locally?

Jane Craigie visits Mexico to witness a nation thriving as a result of its ability to export vast amounts of produce, and Bradley Magnus opens a window onto the future growing techniques that will keep us all fed with delicious vegetables for the coming decades.

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Wine Grapes Feb 07, 2023

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The first traces of wine production date back some 9,000 years to parts of the Middle East. Georgia is known for making some of the earliest wines by burying Kvevris, giant earthenware pots, filling them with grapes and allowing the fruit to ferment.

Over the millenia, the production of wine has evolved and the market is now worth over $200 billion.

In this episode of the Science Behind Your Salad, Jane Craigie visits the Pfalz region of Germany, famous for its incredible Rieslings, and discovers the sensual way that moths are discouraged from destroying the grape crops.

Rod Phillips – Wine writer and historian: https://www.rodphillipsonwine.com/

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Holiday Bonus Episode: Celebrate Grapes Dec 20, 2022

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In this bonus episode, we’ll explore the meaning of grapes from a seasonal perspective. During the holidays, grapes play an important role – both in liquid and solid form.

We talk to a winemaker who is working on non-alcoholic wine. His goal is to approach the same quality and taste levels of the alcoholic counterparts. Our second guest is a BASF Agricultural Solutions employees from Philippines. Grapes (and other fruit) have a high relevance in the local cuisine – and are part of a new year tradition.

We wish you a restful holiday season and a happy new year. Subscribe to “The Science behind your Salad” wherever you get your podcasts, so you don’t miss an episode – you'll hear from us again in 2023 with lots of more exciting stories (stay tuned for further insights around grapes coming soon!)

Learn more about the non-alcoholic wines from Christian Nett here (in German only)

Learn more about the “Twelve Grapes” tradition on Wikipedia.

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Onions Nov 29, 2022

Show notes

Loved by Ernest Hemingway in a sandwich, around 4.5 milliion tonnes of onions are grown globally each year.

While Hemingway ate his onions raw, the vegetable is truly versatile and is the basis of sauces and stews, and can be a condiment on meats such as hotdogs and burgers and much, much more.

Onions are a staple crop, traded globally. They can be easily stored and transported, but there is one trait that makes the onion stand out: when you chop it, they bring tears too your eyes.

But not anymore: 30 years of crop breeding have led to the Sunions. It’s an onion that is less pungent, sweeter and it doesn’t make you cry. We explore the development of this groundbreaking new variety.

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