FP-Seed-Podcast-Cover
FP-Seed-Podcast-Cover

State of Seed

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On State of Seed, launching July 12th, you’ll find out how seeds feed and sustain the planet. Though more than half of what we eat comes from seeds, most of us know very little about them—and how the sector contributes to our world and the future of food security. In this four-part series, host Laura Rosbrow-Telem talks to the innovative players advancing this vital resource, including leaders of multinational companies and NGOs, U.N. and government officials, entrepreneurs, national seed associations, scientists, and, of course, farmers. Plus, you’ll hear about the key concerns keeping them up at night. State of Seed is brought to you by the International Seed Federation, with production services from FP Studios. Listen to the trailer below.  If you like what you hear, you can “subscribe” above on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Laura Rosbrow-Telem (1)
Laura Rosbrow-Telem (1)

Laura Rosbrow-Telem is a Foreign Policy podcast producer and the host of State of Seed. She is the lead producer of the Negotiators, which has a partnership with Wondery, and the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, which made it to Apple’s New & Noteworthy list. She was also a founding producer of the hit economics podcast Ones & Tooze and has helped produce various FP shows, including I Spy. Her reporting has appeared on Radiolab as well as in the Atlantic and Business Insider.

Producer: Claudia Teti | Additional Assistance: Annalise Peterson, Nicolas Petry-Mitchel | ISF Producer: Airah Cadiogan

Episode 1

How Seeds Feed the World

FP-Seed-Podcast-Site-1500x1000 (1)
FP-Seed-Podcast-Site-1500x1000 (1)

Welcome to State of Seed, a four-part series about how seeds feed and sustain the planet in surprising and complicated ways.

On this first episode, host Laura Rosbrow-Telem visits a Rijk Zwaan lettuce plant breeding facility in the Netherlands, watching seeds pollinate in real time. She then goes to Rotterdam to attend the centennial World Seed Congress, an annual gathering of seed leaders. Here, she interviews Beth Bechdol, the deputy director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Bechdol comes from a grain farming family, going back seven generations. She reflects on what the policy world misunderstands about agriculture and the key barriers that farmers face in accessing quality seed.

State of Seed is a show from the International Seed Federation, with production services by FP Studios.

Episode 2

Innovating Seeds to Combat Climate Change

FP-Seed-Podcast-Site-1500x1000 (1)
FP-Seed-Podcast-Site-1500x1000 (1)

More than a third of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions come from food systems. So now there is a big push to make agriculture more sustainable. And seed technology has an important role to play.

On today’s episode of State of Seed, we hear about the science behind three main types of seed innovation: traditional plant breeding, genetically modified seeds (or GMO seeds), and genome editing. What are the benefits and risks of these emerging technologies? And how could they reshape the future of food?

Host Laura Rosbrow-Telem speaks with some of the leading innovators in the seed world, including Richard Harrison, the managing director of plant sciences at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands; Diego Risso, the executive director of the Seed Association of the Americas; and Dan Jenkins, the vice president of regulatory and government affairs at Pairwise, a U.S. start-up genetically editing seeds. Olalekan Akinbo, a senior program officer in biosafety for the African Union Development Agency, also shared his perspective on genome editing during a panel at the centennial World Seed Congress.

Special thanks to Thin Lei Win, whose journalism helped inform this episode.

State of Seed is a show from the International Seed Federation, with production services by FP Studios.

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