Dr Susan McCouch, Professor in plant breeding and genetics at Cornell University, took journey of a lifetime that reframed her understanding of humanity and charted the course for her life’s work in rice breeding.

Chal Landgren, Extension Christmas Tree Specialist at Oregon State University, helps America get into the festive spirit each year with his expertise in breeding, propagating and growing these iconic trees.

Dr Greg Baute, Senior Director of Breeding and Genetics at Aurora Cannabis, gives a glimpse of the still-maturing cannabis breeding industry. He describes some of the challenges of delivering improved products within a highly regulated framework and the excitement of working in a crop with so much to be discovered.

Lane Selman, founder of the Culinary Breeding Network, enriches the hard science of plant breeding with her thoughtful insights about the role art, sociology and anthropology play in variety development. She shares how diverse perspectives and motivations shape modern food production.

Dr Clare Mukankusi, a common bean breeder at the alliance of Diversity International and CIAT, joins us to explain how collaboration in plant breeding results in practical solutions that significantly impact African women. We learn why the common bean is a critical crop from both a nutritional and biodiversity standpoint.

Dr Tifeng Shan, Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the Institute of Oceanology in China, takes us underwater to explore the intricacies of seaweed breeding. He shares how aquatic breeding programs compare with terrestrial ones and explains why this high-value crop has a bright future.

Dr Jen Bromley, Head of Client Research and Development at Vertical Future, shares how breeding crops for growth in a controlled indoor environment differs from traditional field breeding. She also explains how vertical agriculture disrupts the conventional food production model and can supply fresher, more nutritious food to consumers.

Dr Mark Messmer of CoverCress, Inc. is taking on the ultimate plant breeding challenge – converting a weed species into a cash crop that actually benefits farmers. Learn what it takes to commercialize a new oilseed crop from wild pennycress and how new breeding techniques could help overcome challenges along the way.

Dr Anupama Hingane, a plant breeder at ICRISAT, introduces us to the pigeon pea, a critical crop in the Indian diet. We learn how her breeding program is expanding the crop’s yield and range, bringing its agronomic and economic benefits for farmers to farmers in India and globally.

In the third of a three-part episode about East African seed systems, Daniel Wanjama describes how seed saving works and explains its role in supporting food security for African smallholder farmers.