This episode of The Science Behind Your Salad from BASF visits Spain, Portugal and Egypt in a quest to discover how olive crops will be affected by climate change. Jane Craigie meets the farmers busily harvesting their crops, ready to take them off to the mill to be pressed into delicious golden olive oil. The main focus of the olive growing industry encircles the Mediterranean. Olives favour warm conditions, but in some areas the climate is warming. Arid regions of Andalusia are becoming drier, and so farmers rely more and more on irrigation. Jane meets farmers working hard to ensure their water goes a long way and they get the best from the scarce supply. She also meets farmers reinvigorating the olive industry in Egypt, with the help of modern farming methods and crop treatments, plus in Portugal she learns how the circularity of the farming operation, ensuring nothing is wasted, is becoming normal practice. Meanwhile she talks to Johnny Madge, internationally known olive oil expert to find out what the future holds for a crop that faces challenges from a volatile climate. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
