The Food Chain

A rebel grandmother faces losing her livelihood after smuggling maple syrup in Canada, a Vermont gardener stocks fridges full of seeds, an artist plants vegetables on the streets of Los Angeles, and a widow in India blames ‘foreign seeds’ for a string of suicides. Meet the rebels and revolutionaries fighting back against what some see as a growing food dictatorship. Just six companies sell almost...

As the Olympic torch edges closer to Rio, we explore how food can make you a better athlete. We start in Brazil where we meet the man responsible for feeding the best athletes on the planet - from a kitchen the size of three football fields. Our producer has a kick about with Arsenal Football Club’s nutritionist in London, and we talk to Olympians past and present about what they eat. We delve int...

How has one of the world’s smallest countries become one of its biggest food producers? This week we visit a tiny nation responsible for the second largest exports of farmed food. Its vegetable, fruit, and livestock farmers are pushing the limits of productivity – how do they get so much food out of so little land? We visit a dairy farm run almost entirely by robots, one of the country’s many indu...

We know that both smoking and obesity can contribute to an early death. In fact health professionals are now telling us that junk food is even worse than tobacco. But do the parallels between the two industries run deeper than that? They have both been accused of cynical marketing, powerful lobbying and trying to avoid regulation. Some people have even suggested big food is taking a leaf from the...

Fish are a vital source of protein around the world, but there are ever more fishermen chasing ever fewer fish. Most wild fisheries are at, or near, breaking point and it is estimated up to a third of all fish are caught illegally, feeding an underworld of crime. We find out how the growing pressure is leading to violent clashes on the high seas and joins an Indonesian coastguard patrol chasing an...

Pet food is a global multi-billion dollar industry, but does it cater more to us humans than our four-legged friends? We swap the dinner plate for the dog bowl to find out what we feed our furry companions, and why. We examine the pet food supply chain and find out how intertwined it is with our own, both in terms of raw materials and regulation. And with pet obesity and diabetes increasing in man...

How does a country feed itself following an earthquake, flood or drought? The Food Chain looks at the role of food in disaster relief - from the emergency response to the longer-term efforts to restore devastated farmland. We speak to Nepal's farmers to hear how they coped in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake. An aid worker scrambled to Kathmandu tells us how the World Food Programme hired 25,0...

It has been described as the ultimate marketing trick, but the allure of bottled water is something more and more people are swallowing. With global sales set to overtake those of soda, The Food Chain asks why so many of us are paying for something we could easily get for free. With prices of some bottles hundreds of times more expensive than the tap we visit a water testing lab to see if there is...

The animals we eat consume more than 60% of the world’s antibiotics - but not always because they are sick. This week, the Food Chain explores the controversy over the use of antibiotics in agriculture to promote growth and prevent illness. Amid dire warnings that we are heading into a dangerous new world of resistance to antibiotics, we ask whether there really is a link between their use on farm...

As part of the BBC’s Identity season we meet the people who feed us after hours, following the characters and cuisines that only come out after dark. Starting with the heady rush of a London kebab shop, Mike Johnson explores late night food culture around the globe. In an increasingly 24-hour world, how and when we eat is changing. What do our late night food habits say about our identities? We me...

What’s life like for a career waiter at the top of their game? The Food Chain looks at the business of serving and pleasing the ever-fickle customer. The food service industry is facing a cycle of disruption, with business practices changing as rapidly as the customers at lunch hour. We'll look at the current topic du jour - the controversy of tipping and how a movement to democratize the service...

Manuela Saragosa explores the power food has to evoke memory and how memory impacts the food we eat. Jamie Oliver’s mentor – Italian chef Gennaro Contaldo – cooks up a batch of his most nostalgic dish, his mama’s pasta, and tell us why he prepares it when he is feeling down. A neurologist explains why food and smells have such a powerful impact on our brains. And, find out why ‘brand nostalgia’ is...

Food that has been processed, packaged, flavoured and often pre-cooked for us has increasingly become a normal part of everyday life around the globe. But what is the rise and rise of convenience food really doing to us? Many argue it is the root cause of spiralling obesity and diabetes rates, but could we survive without it and feed the world in the process? Manuela Saragosa chews over the issues...

This week, the Food Chain delves deep into food waste: a global problem of epic proportions that is costing one in every three of the world's calories. In January 2016, France became the very first country to ban supermarkets from destroying or throwing away unsold food. It was all thanks to the vision of one man: Arash Derambarsh. He tells Manuela Saragosa how he did it and why the rest of the wo...

From power lunches to 'desktop dining', we unpick the relationship between food and the workplace. We trace how industrialisation played its part in forging the origins of the modern lunch break and how employers began using food as a way to control their workforce. We take a trip back to 19th Century New York where a swelling labour force gave rise to the 'Quick Lunch' - the precursor to the fast...

Nothing to eat but stale bread and water - an enduring image of incarceration, but what part should food play in punishment? In America, the 'Nutraloaf' - a compressed food-stuff with just enough calories to keep you alive - has been used for decades to punish prisoners in solitary confinement, but many say it contravenes even the most basic human rights. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the man who bro...

Over 347 million people worldwide have diabetes, and that figure is set to rise to half a billion in the next 20 years. It is a disease that is spiralling out of control, but how did we get here and who is to blame? The BBC’s Anu Anand and a panel of experts unpick some of the major issues in the diabetes debate from ‘sin taxes’ for food companies to the role of culture and race. Plus they answers...

Is being cool a sign of culinary class? In the autumn of 2015 the Cereal Killer café in East London was attacked by protestors. They viewed it as a symbol of rapid gentrification - arguing that the cafe- which serves cereal from around the world- exemplified the rising inequality in the UK's capital. It led to some basic questions about running a food business. And the tensions between what’s tren...

As part of the BBC's 100 Women season, The Food Chain dedicates an episode to working mothers and how they feed their babies. More women are entering the global workforce, and many of them become mothers at a crucial point in their careers. But with the availability of parental leave as variable as there are countries in the world, many women must return to work while their child is still nursing....

Nearly every major city in the world has one- a district where Chinese immigrants have settled to live, work and eat. This week in a collaboration with BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Food Programme’, Dan Saladino takes you on a tour of Chinatowns around the world. From one of the oldest, in Manila, to one of the newest, in Johannesburg- Chinatowns create a global trail of economic and culinary influence. And...

It can be a tough life in the pressure cooker of the professional kitchen. A restaurant is a crucible of creativity, heat, and long hours. Low entry level wages often twinned with culinary college debt can make it hard for would-be cooks to stand the financial heat. In London, Simon Jack sits down with four chefs - all at different stages in their career - to discuss the most pressing issues of th...

The biggest refugee crisis since World War Two continues to intensify and once the treacherous journey to physical safety is complete, refugees have to contend with the next imperative for survival: how to get their next meal. We hear tales from the front line - from the informal efforts of volunteers on the Greek island of Lesbos to the more formally run Zaatari camp in Jordan. In Greece, newly a...

What are the challenges of finding the next meal in times of war? Feeding an army is a giant exercise in logistics, and it is also a testing ground for the food business. We hear how the food technology developed for soldiers in the field has made its way to our plates today. We speak to a soldier who has lived through three generations of military rations about how the type of food issued to troo...

Can the world’s largest democracy guarantee its citizens the right to their next meal? As part of the BBC India season, The Food Chain takes a deeper look at the challenges and changes within the Indian food system. The population is set to become the world’s largest by 2022, surpassing China. But many obstacles to food remain, falling along the entire spectrum of development. From severe malnouri...

How food, identity, religion, and politics are changing the way India eats. Anu Anand visits Mumbai’s biggest slaughterhouse to assess the economic impact of a total ban on beef and explores the right of an individual to choose what they eat in the world's largest democracy. Plus, we visit a holy town that is seeking to become fully vegetarian, leaving some of its residents feeling unwelcome.