On the floodplains between the Tagus and Sorraia rivers, just outside Lisbon, lies one of Portugal’s most remarkable agricultural landscapes, Companhia das Lezírias. 

In this episode of The Science Behind your Salad, Jane Craigie steps into a living, breathing system where cork oak forests, rice paddies, grazing cattle, and vineyards coexist, shaped by centuries of stewardship and increasingly by the demands of a changing climate. 

From the kitchen of estate chef Pedro Samora - where local ingredients tell stories of heritage and community - to the rice fields that define Portugal’s deep cultural connection to food, this is a journey through a place where agriculture is both tradition and innovation. 

Meeting the people behind the landscape, one of the estate managers, Rui Veríssimo Batista to rice specialist João Alegria, CropLife Portugal’s João Cardoso, and BASF’s Pedro Reis, Jane explores how this vast estate is adapting. Digital tools, precision farming, and biodiversity-led practices are helping to balance productivity with environmental responsibility in a hotter, drier future. 

Portugal consumes more rice per person than anywhere else in Europe, and here, that story unfolds not just in fields, but on plates, in communities, and across generations. 

This episode is a sensory exploration of food, farming, and place, where past and future meet, and where agriculture works in rhythm with land, water, and nature. 

A story of balance. 
A story of resilience. 
And a reminder that the food on our plate begins long before the kitchen.