On the floodplains between the Tagus and Sorraia rivers, just outside Lisbon, lies one of Portugal’s most remarkable agricultural landscapes, Companhia das Lezírias.

In this episode of The Science Behind your Salad, Jane Craigie steps into a living, breathing system where cork oak forests, rice paddies, grazing cattle, and vineyards coexist, shaped by centuries of stewardship and increasingly by the demands of a changing climate.

From the kitchen of estate chef Pedro Samora - where local ingredients tell stories of heritage and community - to the rice fields that define Portugal’s deep cultural connection to food, this is a journey through a place where agriculture is both tradition and innovation.

Meeting the people behind the landscape, one of the estate managers, Rui Veríssimo Batista to rice specialist João Alegria, CropLife Portugal’s João Cardoso, and BASF’s Pedro Reis, Jane explores how this vast estate is adapting. Digital tools, precision farming, and biodiversity-led practices are helping to balance productivity with environmental responsibility in a hotter, drier future.

Portugal consumes more rice per person than anywhere else in Europe, and here, that story unfolds not just in fields, but on plates, in communities, and across generations.

This episode is a sensory exploration of food, farming, and place, where past and future meet, and where agriculture works in rhythm with land, water, and nature.

A story of balance.
A story of resilience.
And a reminder that the food on our plate begins long before the kitchen.

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Before sunrise in central Kenya, green beans are packed for European supermarkets while, on the same morning, women carry leafy greens to sell by the roadside. In this episode, Jane Craigie explores Kenya’s dual food systems — one feeding global markets with precision and scale, the other sustaining families through informal trade and smallholder farming. From women-led coffee cooperatives and honey producers in Baringo County to vast flower farms exporting hundreds of tons daily, we examine how agriculture underpins Kenya’s economy and livelihoods. As exports grow and sustainability pressures mount, the question emerges: how can Kenya continue to feed the world while ensuring it feeds itself?

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In this special episode of The Science Behind Your Salad, we take you inside the World Food Prize and the Borlaug Dialogue, the gathering inspired by the grandfather of the Green Revolution, Norman Borlaug’s and his inherent belief that hunger is a challenge humanity can solve.

Recorded in Iowa, the episode brings together voices shaping the future of food. Jeannie Borlaug Laube reflects on her father’s legacy from his childhood farm. Rattan Lal reminds us why healthy soils still anchor global food security, while Cary Fowler offers the long view on safeguarding crop diversity. Paul Temple grounds the discussion in farm-level realities, and Olivia Marti brings the energy of a new generation. With insights from Neil Bentley on innovation in a climate-stressed world, this episode closes with a simple truth: feeding the future will take science, leadership, and hope.

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