BBC Global News has announced a special nine-part series of Follow the Food focusing on the challenges of feeding the world during a global health crisis, which runs weekly on BBC Future from Friday, April 24, 2020.
Sponsored by Corteva Agriscience, the series showcases how farmers, delivery drivers, supermarket workers and others involved in the food chain are using technology and innovation to keep feeding the world during the global Coronavirus pandemic.
Dan Kelly, Commissioning Editor at BBC Global News, said: “During this extraordinary pandemic, millions of people have experienced food shortages for the first time in their lifetime, so it’s only natural that audience interest in food production and supply chains has greatly increased. We want to hear the stories from the people on the food frontline, from farm to checkout, as they attempt to overcome extraordinary odds, in order to keep us all fed.”
Each week, videos and articles feature a different person on the frontline of the food chain – from Iowa to India. First person accounts from essential workers bring fascinating insights into the daily ingenuity and innovation required to produce and deliver food in the midst of rapidly changing circumstances. The series will also include in-depth features about the new technologies and new business models which have developed in food production in response to the crisis.
Follow the Food hears from a lorry driver transporting perishable foods across Europe’s borders, an Indian grain farmer with no-one to harvest the crop, and a Michigan supermarket worker desperate to maintain social distancing at work but determined to help her local community eat.
The first episode visits a miller in Illinois, USA, working around the clock to keep up with demand for flour. With orders in some cases having increased by 5000%, this small, family-run mill has and expanded to bring valuable work to local people who have been left struggling as a result of the US lockdown.
Dana Bolden, Chief Communications Officer at Corteva Agriscience, said: “In these times, we’re reminded that food is made possible by many hardworking people. They work tirelessly to develop creative solutions and deploy technology that overcomes the challenges they face daily.”
Follow the Food is a TV and digital series showcasing the latest in technological innovation and modern agriculture. Sponsored by Corteva Agriscience, it takes audiences on a journey from field to fork; exploring the ways in which the world’s rapidly growing population can be fed, without exhausting the Earth’s resources.
