Adam Alexander and Claire Ratinon Interviewed by Dan Saladino

Rare vegetable collector and film and television producer Adam Alexander and organic food grower and writer Claire Ratinon discuss how growing food from around the world protects the history and heritage of cultures and encourages a deeper connection with our past, present and future.

Alexander has spent 40 years producing film and television documentaries. In The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables, he talks about his real passion for collecting rare and endangered garden crops. It is a passion that was sparked by a taste of a Ukrainian pepper bought 30 years ago in Donetsk. Alexander says we are a nation of vegetable growers and it is vital we keep growing rare and endangered heirloom and heritage vegetables to pass them on to the next generations.

Ratinon’s Unearthed: On Race and Roots and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong is a personal story of how the author fell in love with growing plants and discovered a connection with nature that allowed her to put down roots. Ratinon left her work as a documentary producer after a chance encounter with a rooftop farm in New York.  Through growing the food of Mauritius on her plot in East Sussex she was able to explore the stories of her parents and the history of her homeland. Ratinon writes for Waitrose Food Magazine, Bloom and The Modern House Journal and has grown organic vegetables for the Ottolenghi restaurant, Rovi.

Discussions will be chaired by food writer and broadcaster Dan Saladino, author of Eating to Extinction.

This event is part of a series under the banner Pasture to Plate® that looks at the environmental and health benefits of raising food on pasture and getting it to the consumer quickly through a short supply chain.