The Science Behind Your Salad

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not every crop relating to what we eat is edible. The table dressing also plays a valuable roll with crisp white tablecloths and beautifully folded napkins. In this episode we focus on the way that sustainability of cotton crops can be traced from the seed to the manufacture and selling of products made from the fabric - a success story in Greece. In order to demonstrate the role blockchain technology can play in each step of the process, a unique fashion show has been staged in a cotton field in Komotini/Greece, and we were there to meet the farmers and scientists involved in the project. Meanwhile in the USA, a nation at the forefront of developing the industry and one of the world's top growers, we dip into the troubled past and the role slavery played in the success of cotton and explore new developments in seed breeding to ensure the crop can continue to be successful in the face of climate change.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Waves of golden flowers can currently be seen rippling in the wind across many parts of the world as the oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) harvest is approaching. But it is in Canada that the crop is a real success story. Oilseed rape grown there is a derivative known as canola. Canola oil is a highly versatile oil used for both animal and human consumption. The oil is low in saturated fats, so it is very healthy. In this episode we hear from farmers who produce rich golden oils and dressings from rapeseed and we hear about a real farming gamechanger for canola growers: InVigor canola seed. A hybrid canola seed that not only increases yield but also reduces something that is the bane of canola and rapeseed growers around the world: pod shatter. Pod shatter leads to millions of dollars of seeds being lost when the pods that contain the so-called ‘black gold’ – the seeds that are crushed to make the oil – are shattered by wind and rain before the farmers can get the crop in. With the pod shatter reduction technology, this can now be a problem consigned to the past.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every year 350 million tonnes of soybean are grown. More than three-quarters of global soy is fed to livestock for meat and dairy production. Most of the rest is used for biofuels, industry or vegetable oils. Whilst just 7% of soy is used directly as food for us to eat, the crop is packed with protein and is a valuable contributor to global health. This episode looks at breakthroughs in the production of the crop and we look at some of the foods that are made from soy from milk to tofu. It’s a vital crop that, if produced sustainably, could be a gamechanger when it comes to improving nutrition.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.