Shortened

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

The Compass v2 Podcast

The Compass

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

With ideas too big for a single episode, The Compass presents mini-series about society

Surprising stories from unusual places. With ideas too big for a single episode, The Compass presents mini-series about the environment and politics, culture and society.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

The Compass: The Understory: Life in the Soil: Life in soil: Tasting the earth in France

Factual

Life in soil: Tasting the earth in France

28/09/2022 GMT

The Understory: Life in the Soil

BBC World Service - The Compass, The Understory: Life in the Soil, Life in soil: Tasting the earth in France

How a healthy soil teeming with fungi and microbes can enhance the flavour of food

How a healthy soil teeming with fungi and microbes can enhance the flavour of food and drink

Writer and environmentalist Isabelle Legeron is in France to see how cultivating a healthy soil, teeming with fungi and microbes, can enhance the flavour profile of food and drink - from cheese to coffee to wine. She explores the fundamental role soil plays in the notion of “terroir’ - the conviction that the natural environment in which plants are grown, can be experienced in the taste and texture of the food and drink made from them.
 
Isabelle speaks to a cast of soil microbiologists, land managers and taste experts - Lydia and Claude Bourguignon (France), Anne Biklé (USA), the Le Puy vineyard in Bordeaux, Barry Smith (UK), Darek Trowbridge (USA) and Hans-Peter Schmidt (Switzerland).

Presenter: Isabelle Legeron
Producer: Sasha Edye-Lindner
A Cast Iron Production for BBC World Service

(Photo: A vineyard)

The Compass: The Understory: Life in the Soil

Isabelle Legeron explores the thrilling complexity of soil.

Passionate and knowledgeable, a soil expert and "terroir-ist", Isabelle Legeron brings the earth to life. Leaving stones unturned, she revels in the thrilling complexity of this seemingly static, crumbly mass beneath our feet. She maps the rise and fall of our understanding of soil to her own life, growing up on a farm in Cognac, at a time when nitrogen fertiliser promised food for the world. Today it's the challenge of our time with increasing tracts of dead soil across over cultivated regions of the planet. She considers soil on other planets, forest soils, rock soils, the character of soils and how this seemingly same earth gives each of us a powerful sense of our own identity.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Compass

The Understory: Life in the Soil

Life in soil: Tasting the earth in France

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

About BBC World Service