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The Food Chain

Factual: Food & Drink

Examining what it takes to put food on your plate

The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.

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The Food Chain: Made in space

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Made in space

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Made in space

How answers to some of agriculture's biggest questions could be found beyond Earth

Why are companies blasting bottles of alcohol and crops into space? Are they just publicity stunts, or are there some serious scientific discoveries to be made? 

We explore the potential of space when it comes to producing food and drink - not for astronauts or the first settlers on Mars, but by developing crops that could be more productive and more resistant to climate change here on Earth. 

A NASA scientist tells Graihagh Jackson how microgravity on the International Space Station could be the key to unlocking the potential of many Earth crops, and a serial entrepreneur explains why he’s investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the idea in a bid to save Bordeaux wine. 

Plus, we find out how space science has already helped us grow indoor crops and develop more efficient and environmentally friendly fertilisers.

(Picture: Planet Earth, composed by NASA images. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

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