In this Business Daily mini series we're exploring how businesses we all use regularly are being affected by the cost of living crisis.

Leanna Byrne goes from farm to fork, first speaking to farmers in Malawi and Canada about the rising costs of growing crops and rearing dairy cows, then getting the macro picture from Food Drink Europe, which represents food and drink giants like Nestle, Unilever and Danone.

We also hear from Chris Hegadorn, Secretary of the UN’s Committee on World Food Security, who says that rising food prices in a developing country could be completely destablising.

Presenter / Producer: Leanna Byrne Additional production: Olivia Wilson Image: Farming; Credit: Getty

In this Business Daily mini series we're exploring how businesses we all use regularly are being affected by the cost of living crisis. This episode looks at how bakers are coping as the price of grain, dairy and the power needed to heat their ovens, all continue to increase.

Leanna Byrne speaks to bakers in Egypt, France and Uganda – one baker tells us that the price increases she's seeing for ingredients means she should really have doubled her prices. Our French baker tells us the price of butter is a huge issue there and in Egypt we investigate the expense of wheat imports and difficulty sourcing local wheat.

Presenter / Producer: Leanna Byrne Additional production: Olivia Wilson Image: Baker; Credit: Getty

In this Business Daily mini series we're exploring how businesses we all use regularly are being affected by the cost of living crisis. This episode looks at how hairdressers are coping as the price of power and hair products continues to increase.

Leanna Byrne speaks to hairdressers in South Africa, the USA and Germany – all report difficulties with rising overheads and the need to start passing those costs on to customers. We also look at how one haircare brand, selling direct to consumers, is seeing increased sales but also increased manufacturing costs and longer turn-around times.

Presenter / Producer: Leanna Byrne Additional production: Olivia Wilson Image: Hairdressing; Credit: Getty

Tech entrepreneur Frederic Kerrest tells Sam Clack how he helped to build the multi-billion dollar tech company, Okta, from scratch.

He goes through the life and business lessons he’s learned along the way – and explains the importance of listening to great advice at every stage of your career.

In his new book ‘Zero to IPO’, Frederic shares valuable insights from top CEOs that he hopes will help to motivate the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Presenter / Producer: Sam Clack Image: Frederic Kerrest; Credit: Okta

We take a look at the companies moving the business of love to the metaverse.

Hannah Mullane meets Aurora Townsend, co-founder of the world’s first virtual reality dating app, who tells us about what customers can expect and Hannah heads into the metaverse herself to meet Marc Charlton, founder of Dates VR, a virtual reality speed dating event.

Hannah also hears from a couple who got married on a virtual reality platform called Decentraland. That company's creative producer also explains what it’s really like to plan a virtual wedding because just like in the real world, weddings are big business.

Presenter / Producer: Hannah Mullane Image: Avatars; Credit: ‘Dates VR’

Find out more about the DNA ancestry company aiming to increase its appeal across a wider range of ethnic groups. They're attempting to correct the racial bias in DNA databases, so customers get a fuller story of who they are.

Genetic studies have primarily been done nearly exclusively in European populations to date and DNA databases are four to one skewed in favour of European DNA.

But diversity drives are unearthing genetic treasure. Slavery scrubbed the family histories of generations. Genetics is helping African Americans, for one, piece together their stolen stories.

In this episode David Reid hears the story of Jamila Zheng who found her ancestral home and relatives she didn't know existed after taking a DNA test. We also hear from Dr Steven Micheletti, Population Geneticist at 23andMe and Dr Anjali Shastri, Senior Research Programme Manager at 23andMe about the diversity drive at their company.

Producer / Presenter: David Reid Image: Jamila Zheng; Credit: 23andMe

Ever heard of the term non-promotable task? Well, if you’re a woman, the chances are you’ve been doing a lot of them at work.

Leanna Byrne speaks to the authors of The No Club, a book tracking the problems that arise when women are tasked with doing mindless jobs. We are talking about the kind of jobs that make managers happy, but won’t help you get on in your career.

Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart—the original “No Club”— join us to talk through why women are disproportionately asked and expected to take on these tasks, why that leaves women overcommitted and underutilised and how companies are therefore forfeiting revenue, productivity, and top talent.

Presenter/producer: Leanna Byrne

(Photo: Stressed woman at work. Credit: Getty Images)

Floriade is a huge horticulture exhibition taking place every 10 years. It's in the Dutch city of Almere this year. For 6 months, visitors will see displays of plants and flowers, horticultural innovation – and proposed solutions to global environmental problems, especially in the area of urban housing.

Matthew Kenyon has been to visit and hear about the challenges of putting it together during the pandemic and the costs and benefits to the local area of hosting it. Plus a look at some of the displays and questions over whether there is a future for these big, set-piece events. Presenter / Producer: Matthew Kenyon Image: Ariel view of Floriade; Credit: Matthew Kenyon

One of the many casualties of the war in Yemen is the FSO Safer, a floating storage facility which holds one million barrels of crude oil. No maintenance has been carried out on the vessel for years, and experts believe it’s in danger or exploding or leaking oil in to the Red Sea at any moment.

The UN has previously unsuccessfully tried to resolve the issue, but David Gressly, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, thinks the next few weeks could be vital, and is calling on the private sector and individuals to help fund an operation to transfer the oil to a safer vessel.

We hear from Tim Lenderking, US Special Envoy for Yemen, Ghiwa Nakat of Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa and Yemen’s Minister for Water and the Environment Tawfeeq Al Sharjabi. Presenter: Hannah Bewley Producers: Hannah Bewley and Sumaya Bakhsh Image: The FSO Safer from above; Credit: Getty Images

Joe Tidy travels to El Salvador where almost everything can be paid for using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. After President Bukele invested heavily in Bitcoin some people are questioning the long-term impact of such a move.

For some money has flowed in from mysterious investors, but others like local economist Tatiana Maraquin think the country’s economy cannot handle the fluctuations in the value of the cryptocurrency.

Joe visits a veterinary surgery, which offers huge discounts on treatment if it is bought using the Chivo bitcoin wallet app. Presenter/producer: Joe Tidy

(Photo: Bitcoin poster)

Adaptive fashion, or stylish clothes for people who have a disability have not always been widely available, especially for those who use a wheelchair. Recently though, a fashion revolution has begun.

We hear from the women pushing the industry to change. British Somali Faduma Farah launched a fellowship for designers to come up with an inclusive collection that would be modelled at London Fashion Week. We speak to Faduma and the winning designer Harriet Eccleston, as well as stylist and influencer Heide Herkes who was one of the models featured on the runway during the show – the first ever to include wheelchair users. Plus, Maria O'Sullivan-Abeyratne, CEO and founder of Adaptista, tells us about the inclusive online shopping platform she’s building for the adaptive fashion market.

Presenter: Vivienne Nunis Producer: Izzy Greenfield Image: Faduma Farah, founder of the Faduma Fellowship; Credit: BBC

Meet the community groups trying to make energy more accessible and affordable.

Laura Heighton-Ginns visits a fuel poverty workshop in the UK and hears about the devastating effects of not being able to afford food and why it’s so important to have a secure energy supply.

Laura hears from Soren Hermansen - the Director of the Energy Academy on the island of Samso in Denmark. Samso controls its own energy supply and advises other communities on how they can do the same.

And we find out about a project in Tanzania run by Janet Maro. Janet's project powers a centre for training farmers using experimental technology to harness the energy from the sun and collect rain water.

Presenter / Producer: Laura Heighton-Ginns Image: Janet Maro and her team; Credit: Janet Maro