The Microbe Revolution

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2014

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you’ve probably heard about the human microbiome. Research into the composition, function, and importance of the galaxy of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that, when we’re healthy, live in symbiotic balance in and on us has become one of the fastest moving and most intriguing fields of scientific study. But it turns out that plants have a microbiome too—and it’s just as important and exciting as ours. In this episode of Gastropod, we look at the brand new science that experts think will lead to a “Microbe Revolution” in agriculture, as well as the history of both probiotics for soils and agricultural revolutions. And we do it all in the context of the crop that Bill Gates has called “the world’s most interesting vegetable”: the cassava. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:01.4	Hello and welcome to Gastropod. I'm Nicola Twilly and I'm Cynthia Graber. And as usual,
1:07.4	we're here to share fascinating tales about the science and history of food. This week we're
1:12.4	going to spend a lot of time talking about a vegetable called a cassava. You may not have
1:16.4	heard of it. But according to Bill Gates, it is the world's most interesting vegetable.
1:22.4	He also called it the stud of the vegetable world. The stud. Yes, bold statements indeed.
1:28.4	He argues it's kind of an overlook secret weapon in feeding the world. So it's this
1:33.4	long, nobily, starchy tuber. It looks a little bit like a sweet potato shape wise.
1:38.4	It has a hard brown outside and a firm white, yellowy or really like a potato interior.
1:45.4	And it's a staple food for nearly a billion people. In fact, nearly 40% of all of the
1:51.4	calories consumed in Africa come from the cassava. It grows in the tropics of South America,
1:56.4	and Asia, and Africa, and like Nikki said, it plays a really huge role in the daily diet
	...

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