When I was a kid, pistachio-flavoured gelato was a rarity. These days, pistachios are popping up everywhere. Inside chocolate, as a syrup in lattes, sprinkled on top of pastries and as a butter in overnight oats. But our hunger for this particularly thirsty crop hangs on a knife edge.
These jewel-like seeds (no, they’re not nuts) are often grown in drought-prone regions of Iran and the US. Thomas Davies and Tom Higgs, both experts in sustainability and carbon footprints at Lancaster University, explain how climate change and water scarcity are already affecting pistachio production. They suggest that less intensive, more water-efficient farming methods could help, as well as treating pistachios as a treat, not a staple.
In Health Gap, a new series in association with Videnskab.dk, we explore what the UK and Denmark can learn from each other. From cycling and wellbeing to hospitals and everyday habits, the series considers how culture, politics and society shape the way people live – and how healthy they are. To kick off the collaboration, we unpick the data to decipher which nation gets more health for its pound or krone.
And as London gears up to welcome the Bayeux Tapestry, we look at the story of Matilda of Flanders, the woman behind William the Conqueror’s success.
