The Future of Tomatoes

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Scientists have gone out into the wild and work with local scientists to find the wild crops. The reason that's really important is a lot of our crops are not doing very well. But you've got wild tomatoes and wild aubergines that are doing really well, because they're able to kind of evolve on their own. So if we can save those seeds, then we bring them back and we've stored them in the Millennium Seed Bank.

We now know that global temperatures are likely to temporarily rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in the next five years. Breaching this crucial threshold will give humanity an insight into what the next few decades could bring. It will undoubtedly have serious consequences in all aspects of our lives, including what we eat. In the second of our special series of episodes looking at what a future world might look like, science editor Ian Sample explores how our diets could change as the Earth heats up. Ian talks to Kew’s kitchen gardener Helena Dove about climate-resilient vegetables, visits Tiziana di Costanzo’s insect farm to try mealworms and crickets, and hears from Solar Food’s CEO, Pasi Vainikka, about making food from bacteria, electricity and air. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod