‘Taste the Waste’ is a German documentary film directed by Valentin Thurn about global food waste and what we can do about it.

Agriculture is responsible for more than a third of the greenhouse gases worldwide because farming requires energy, fertilizers and land. What’s more, whenever food rots away at a garbage dump, methane escapes into the atmosphere, a climate gas with an effect 25 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. On the way from farm to table, more than half the food lands in the dump, most of it before it ever reaches consumers. Wasting half our food has a disastrous impact on the world’s climate.

Why is so much food being destroyed? The film seeks explanations from grocery store staff, bakers, market inspectors, welfare recipients, ministers, farmers and European Union bureaucrats. Sadly, food waste is a system that we all take part in. How can we stop this kind of waste? The film visits people who want to stop this waste: a scientific researcher, supermarket manager, potato farmer, plant operator and dumpster divers. All of them are working together towards a goal that offers a major opportunity to address our climate crisis.

‘Taste the Waste’ (2011) is an Environmental Media Award winner and Berlinale world premiere.

This film screening is presented by DesignTO in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Toronto.

DesignTO brings people together to design a better future, one that is more sustainable, just, and joyful. We curate exhibitions, presentations and educational programming to increase the public’s knowledge and appreciation of design, and hope to embolden all Canadians to participate in making a future where people and planet are thriving again.

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Free symposium January 25 & 26: DesignTO Symposium: Trash Talk