UM atUM [S02-ep09]: From CO2 in Vegetables to the Peptide Plate

[Podcast] - Published on December 1, 2022 in Science and Society

This week, Alain Gojon from the Montpellier Institute of Plant Sciences explains the impact of higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations on the nutritional quality of plants. In the second half of the program, Pascal Verdié takes us on a tour of the peptide lab at the Synbio3 platform within the Balard Research Chemistry Cluster. A program co-produced with Divergence FM.

Vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein… What could be better than a piece of fruit to give you a boost? What could be better than a vegetable to help you get your energy back?

Come on, we’ve seen right through you… Don’t blush like a tomato and stop feeding us a load of nonsense! We know that for many of you, fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based foods are a real pain in the neck. Too expensive when you’re broke as a joke, too dry when you’re into fatty foods, too time-consuming to prepare when you’re in a rush like crazy…

And yet… Imagine for a second that vegetables no longer serve us. Imagine if plants no longer fed us! A global crisis! All of humanity running out of juice! Does that make you think… “rice”? And yet this is no joke… Recent studies show that while rising atmospheric CO2 levels stimulate photosynthesis, they also degrade the nutritional quality of plants.

So, are the carrots cooked? That’s the question we’re asking our guest today. Alain Gojon is a researcher at the Institute of Plant Sciences in Montpellier.