The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

The food stories behind your favourite fruits and vegetables.

Have you ever wondered who picked your Fairtrade banana or how far your green beans travelled to reach your plate? We are all part of a complex food system.

Trying to make sense of it, environmental journalist Louise Gray tracks the stories of our five-a-day, from farm to fruit bowl, and discovers the impact that growing fruits and vegetables has on the planet. Visiting farms, interviewing scientists and trying to grow her own, she asks important questions to dig up the dirt on familiar items in our shopping baskets. Are plant proteins as good for us as meat proteins? Why can we buy so-called ‘seasonal’ fruits like strawberries all year round? And is the symbol of clean eating, the avocado, fuelling the climate crisis?

As pressure grows to share our healthy, environmentally friendly lives on social media, Avocado Anxiety is also a personal story of motherhood and the realisation that nothing is ever perfect.