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No Plants No Food

Everything we eat either comes directly or indirectly from plants, and the spread of plant diseases and pests that damage our food crops can cost global agriculture $540 billion a year.

In episode 2 of our Branch Out podcast, No Plants No Food, put on your detective hat and lab coat and enter the restricted area of the PlantClinic with Branch Out host, Vanessa Fuchs and Senior Research Scientist, Dr Edward Liew. Go deep into the strange and microscopic world of fungi to discover how Dr Liew and his team are identifying, researching and controlling thousands of deadly diseases which threaten our food crops and native plants.

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Branch Out host, Vanessa Fuchs, entering the restricted area of the PlantClinic to record episode 2 ‘No Plants No Food’ with Dr Liew.

Dr Liew and Branch Out host, Vanessa Fuchs, recording episode 2 ‘No Plants No Food’ inside the PlantClinic.

Dr Liew showing Branch Out host, Vanessa Fuchs, how to put the FUN back into fungi research at the PlantClinic.

Dr Liew holding some samples of plant pathogens growing on agar plates at the PlantClinic.

Branch Out host, Vanessa Fuchs, looking at the strange and microscopic world of plant diseases with Dr Liew at the PlantClinic.

Close up of a plant pathogen growing on an agar plate and illuminated by the light of a microscope at the PlantClinic.

It's no laughing matter - but Branch Out host, Vanessa Fuchs, is learning a lot about the deadly plant diseases which threaten our food crops and native plants.

A banana plantation being attacked by the deadly Panama disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, which almost completed wiped out the Gros Michel banana in the 50’s.