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Beans – A Superfood Story

Science 52' 2024 4K

Beans are true all-rounders: they stand for home and tradition, they connect generations and continents, they bring memories to life and are good for the intestinal flora and climate. It goes without saying that we will continue to be interested in beans in the future! So it's high time that scientists took a closer look at the superfood and, as part of a citizen experiment, investigated which varieties of the world's oldest cultivated plant will work best in Europe in a climate-adapted way.

As part of INCREASE, over 1,000 varieties of the common bean will be grown by amateur gardeners in 27 European countries and characteristics such as growth, flowering time and yields will be meticulously documented for scientific purposes.

The film follows the experiment and some of the participants with their different results. How else can we increase our knowledge of the diversity of beans?

While Dr. Kerstin Neumann at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Gatersleben, Germany, leads the experiment and is committed to the preservation and use of (old) bean varieties, leguminous vegetables and beans have always been on the menu in Italian cuisine. In her restaurant in Chiusi, Tiziana Tacchi prepares regional varieties in a traditional climate-friendly cooking box.

Scientists are investigating the genetic characteristics of a bean and maize combination in fields in the south of France. What synergies make certain varieties high-yielding, sustainable plant partners?

In the Rhineland in Germany, farmer Karl-Adolf Kremer relies on the field bean as a sustainable, protein-rich crop that not only enriches the soil and provides food for insects and farm animals, but also has great potential for human nutrition.

Researchers in Halle (Saale) in Germany are therefore working on improving the digestibility of leguminous vegetables so that nutritional benefits can be incorporated into innovative foods.

Because only those who know beans and know how to use their diversity will give them value in the future. These are primary school children who rediscover the “antiquated” vegetable in the school garden or bean enthusiasts from all over Europe who share and spread their riches of beans and bean knowledge in Capannori, Italy, and thus save it from extinction.