Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Taste the Waste" is (despite the English title) a German documentary from 6 years ago. There are so many filming locations in here all over the world and as a consequence so many languages are spoken that you may not want to watch this without a good set of subtitles. The writer and director here is Valentin Thurn and I see he is still pretty prolific in film, which is a good thing as here he made a fairly decent documentary. It is informative as well as inspirational. And with the latter, I do not mean that you start collecting food from garbage now, but just that everybody of us can think about their way of eating a bit and make sure they do not throw away anything that could still be eaten, only because it is not as fresh anymore as it was on the day you bought it. And with "they", I actually mean "we" as this concerns me as well.I like documentaries that have a smart message and this one does fore sure. I will not go much into detail which parts I felt were the best and the most informative, but it is a well-rounded piece of film that runs for almost 90 minutes and is not too long or too short for its own good. We can certainly learn a lot from other countries in the ways we consume food. Why are tomatoes thrown away because they do not have the perfect size if they are like every other tomato in terms of taste and looks? Just one example. It is truly shocking to see how we could 3 time feed the starving population of the planet with everything we throw away. But this is not only a reference to human individuals. It is also a warning signal to economies and countries as a whole that something goes terribly wrong. Sadly, these people who have the power to change for the better will not do so because of their greed, lethargy and inability to truly make a change that may be better for anything other than their own bank account. A sad state of affairs. I applaud Thurn for his effort here. He got the right ratio between general messages and the fates of individuals. Watch this film. You will not be disappointed.
