MWFF 2011: Taste the Waste

Montreal World Film Festival

Taste the Waste

Director: Valentin Thurn
Script: Valentin Thurn
Photography: Roland Breitschuh
Editor: Birgit Koster
Germany, 36 min.
Production company: Astrid Vandekerkhove, Valentin Thurn, Schnittstelle Koln/Thurn GbR, Marsiliusstr. 36, Cologne 50937

Official Film Synopses:

 Taste the Waste

"On the way from the farm to the dining table, more than half the food produced ends up in the garbage. Most of it before it ever reaches consumers. Why are such huge quantities of food being destroyed? The film seeks explanations from supermarket staff and managers, bakers, food inspectors, welfare recipients, politicians, farmers and bureaucrats. It's a system that everyone takes part in: supermarkets get rid of "old" food to make way for the new. And we encourage the practice…"

The film presents an excellent exposition as to how and why a huge amount of food is wasted, ending up in landfills before it even arrives to homes or restaurants, and also as leftovers. At the end of the film a statement is made that in Europe and North America the amount of food that goes to waste equals the quantity with which the entire world could be fed three times over. This is really terrifying in view of all the hunger that goes on in the world. How many malnourished children are there? How many people go to bed hungry? Yet the process by which the food gets to the tables in the modern civilized societies could hardly be described as civil. It lacks the main principles of civility: it misuses a huge amount of human labour as well as fossil energy and other resources involved in food production, with total lack of sincere aspiration to feed properly all the people in the world.

I highly recommend for everybody to see this documentary and reflect on what could be done to save the wasted food.

taste the waste - trailer

Maybe one of the solutions how to conserve food and energy could be found in restructuring our cities in such a way that people could start growing their fresh produce right in the cities. That would eliminate the transportation and food selection process that results in a huge quantity of food being thrown out into dumpsters.

The Ecocity congress that is taking place in Montreal right now deals with many sustainability issues, including urban agriculture. I am describing some of the initiatives of growing food in Montreal in my blog Now Event.