ARTE documentary “Superfood Beans” featuring INCREASE – preview at Long Night of Science in Halle

On Friday, 5th July 2024, MDR and ARTE (a German and a European broadcasting company) premiered their bean documentary featuring INCREASE at the Long Night of Science in Halle. Among the attendees was Dr Kerstin Neumann from the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, who co-coordinates the Europe-wide INCREASE Citizen Science Experiment together with Prof. Roberto Papa and is one of the film’s protagonists.

Intrigued by the superpowers of beans, the film team, led by Jasmin Lakatoš, followed the INCREASE scientists (both professional and citizen scientists) in Germany, Italy and France. “Beans are an incredibly fascinating crop, and citizens should know about the vast diversity that exists,” explains Dr. Kerstin Neumann from the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, in the MDR-produced documentary for ARTE.

To explore this diversity and to understand which bean varieties best adapt to climate changes in Europe, the INCREASE team has organised every year since 2021 a huge citizen science experiment in which thousands of hobby gardeners across 27 European countries are cultivating and investigating diverse old bean varieties, documenting their growth, flowering times, and yields. The ARTE documentary shows how even elementary school children in Köthensdorf, Saxony, are discovering beans through the experiment.

The documentary team also visited INCREASE researchers in southern France, who study the interaction between beans and maize in the field.

A broadcast date for the documentary, produced by MDR for ARTE, has yet to be set. Stay tuned for the announcement via our website news and social media!

From left to right: Inka Zimmermann (MDR Wissen), Kerstin Neumann (IPK) and Urte Grauwinkel ( Halle University)