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Anthony Bourdain Would Like To Talk To You About Food Waste
By
Nell Casey
Published Aug 24, 2017
Modified Aug 24, 2017
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By
Nell Casey
Published Aug 24, 2017
Modified Aug 24, 2017
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If anyone can make the very important and urgent topic of food waste sexy and interesting maybe it's Anthony Bourdain? The chef and TV host is the executive producer Wasted! The Story Of Food Waste, a documentary film on the subject that premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, with a wider release coming in October. Sorry John Oliver; maybe get some more tattoos?
The film—directed by The Mind of a Chef and Bourdain properties The Layover and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown producers/directors Anna Chai and Nari Kye— draws attention to the crisis while also offering solutions from industry luminaries like chef Dan Barber, who's been a local champion of the cause at his Blue Hill restaurants. The film also includes appearances and insights from the likes of Mario Batali, Massimo Bottura and Danny Bowien, among others.
The city's fledgling composting initiative has helped divert food waste from ending up in landfills, where every year over a million tons of greenhouse gas-producing waste ends up. But the problem is still staggeringly huge. "Every year 80% of the world’s water, 40% of the world’s land, and 10% of the world’s energy is dedicated to growing the food we eat, yet in the same year 1.3 billion tons of food is thrown out," the film notes.
As the global epidemic garners more attention, chefs and brands are reinventing their methods for using as much of a food item as they can, and food producers are selling "ugly" produce that would otherwise go straight to the dumpster.
And maybe if we compost enough carrot tops we'll save an iceberg or two.
WASTED! The Story of Food Waste premieres in theaters and VOD on October 13th.
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dan barber
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