Sushi is everywhere these days—in grocery stores and gas stations, at buffets and birthday parties, in Europe and Latin America and all over the United States. This popularity is especially astonishing when you remember that, just a few decades ago, the idea of eating nuggets of raw fish and rice seemed bizarre, intimidating, and even a little gross to most non-Japanese people. Even more surprising? The simple nigiri and maki rolls we think of as “traditional” sushi are relatively recent inventions, too. This episode, we’re going back to sushi’s origins as a cheesy-tasting fermented fish pickle, to tell the story of how impatience, war, and the 1980s—the glory days of yuppies, Sony Walkmans, and The Breakfast Club—transformed it into the seafood snack we know and love today. Plus listen in now to hear why you're eating sushi all wrong—and what you're missing out on as a result. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Much focus goes on food growing and selling, but is the missing link in increasing the UK's food self sufficiency actually food processing? It might be all about Ultra Processed Foods in the news, but there is another, much older, side to food processing that plays an integral role in getting food from fields to our plates.Beans, peas, oats, veg and barley can all be produced in the UK in abundance, but producers often have to transport their crops for miles to reach basic processing facilities like cleaning, sorting, de-hulling or grading. The UK’s processing factories are part of a globalised food supply chain, importing vast volumes of grains and pulses from overseas as ingredients in our food. But it wasn’t always the case, as we hear from a Sheffield historian who has uncovered the city’s link with pea canning and the female pea pioneer who transformed the processing industry. From the farmer making oat milk in his own barn, to the UK’s last remaining processing facility for peas and beans, Sheila Dillon lifts the lid on this hidden part of the supply chain, and finds an industry at a crossroads.Produced by Nina Pullman.