Taste the Waste

It's a scary fact: about half of all food ends up in the trash. Many of them, even before they reach the market. The bread that is thrown away every year in Germany could feed the whole of Lower Saxony. Every year, German consumers throw away food worth the annual turnover of Aldi. Tomatoes that don't have a very specific red colour or cucumbers that can't be put neatly on the shelf because they are curved don't even make it into the shops, just like potatoes that are too small.

All these are circumstances that Valentin Thurn tries to shed light on in his documentary Taste the Waste. Talks with farmers, psychologists, EU bureaucrats, supermarket directors or garbage workers bring unbelievable things to light. With its sometimes quite explicit imagery, the film shocks, but it also encourages. For in the midst of all the horror stories, Thurn also shows a glimmer of hope, presents people who are taking the right path to counteract the waste that has unfortunately become a matter of course in our society.

It is particularly interesting that the ways and means against waste are actually simple, but that bureaucracy, greed for profit, but also a certain habit and above all convenience of consumers often stand in your way. It becomes clear that especially the simple consumer has to rethink, that the purchase itself has to be approached much more consciously in order to make a difference. Anyone who believes that it makes no difference to the starving people on this planet whether food is thrown away here in Germany is being taught a lesson here. Even those who have been vociferously fighting against nuclear power in recent months should watch this film. For it is precisely by consuming food more consciously that energy consumption can be reduced and the climate protected. The documentary makes it clear that it is not enough to pay a little more for electricity in order to do something to protect the environment, our society and our planet. There has to be a nationwide rethinking of consumption. What may sound like an endless amount of work is actually quite simple, as long as the first step is taken.

Surely the film, like most documentaries actually, can be accused of being somewhat one-sided and manipulative in many places. But since it doesn't just indict, but also offers solutions, one should certainly be able to put up with a certain degree of manipulation. Taste the Waste is not only tremendously interesting and enlightening, the documentary also teaches us one thing: henceforth, it should not only be the eye that eats, but also the mind. Because only then could every single one of us change something. Absolutely worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp