GIY Founder Mick Kelly is the presenter of a new six-part documentary series called 'Food Matters.'
It's set to air on RTÉ One each Wednesday evening at 8.30pm, with the first episode going live tonight.
The series uncovers Ireland’s food sustainability and how the food system is a major contributor to the climate change emergency.
‘Food Matters’ is filmed at GROW HQ in Waterford and features locations nationwide during each half-hour episode taking the audience on a new journey from the plot to the planet.
Throughout the series, the founder of GIY and the show’s presenter, Mick Kelly, travels across Ireland to meet with farmers, food producers, food experts, climate experts, chefs, economists, ecologists, and activists as he digs deep to uncover the complexity of the Irish food system, how it works, how it delivers, and how it impacts the environment.
In one episode, he speaks of how Irish food producers are going out of business despite the vegetable shortage.
"The reason that there are shortages is because of climate change, the impact of climate change on weather patterns. Horrendous weather in other countries over the Winter months means that they are not able to produce vegetables as much and we then see shortages on the supermarket shelves here," Mick told Beat News.
He also outlined that we can tackle that problem by supporting Irish food producers, but also by eating seasonally. This involves choosing vegetables and fruit that are in season each month.
"We're still in the winter veg, the root vegetables, like carrots and parsnips, leeks, and kales and cauliflowers. As we get into the Spring then we see the leafy greens like new-season spinach and rhubarb, and peas and beans start to come in. Over the Summer, you have the fruiting vegetables, so things like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers. Then into the Autumn, squashes, pumpkins, and obviously all the fruits like apples," Mick said.
In episode three Mick explores how we can “Stop Food Pollution”, and looks at what can we do to reduce our reliance on chemicals in the growing process and plastics in the packaging of food.
To start the episode Mick heads to Kildare to visit Paul Fogarty from the Irish Wildlife Trust to see some of the effects when food pollution gets into our waterways and farmlands.
Then he is off to Waterford to meet a lecturer in regenerative farming who has completely removed pollutants from a farm, then Mick is visiting a young dairy farmer to talk about his story of converting to fully organic farming.
Next, he heads to Dublin to meet, Journalist John Gibbons to chat about the impact of plastic on our planet before Mick meets environmental lawyer and activist Mindy O’Brien to discuss the use of plastic in our food system.
To finish the episode Mick is looking at a solution to food pollution – food that’s grown organically, locally and sold in a zero-waste shop with no plastic in sight.
For further details see www.giy.ie or www.foodmatterstv.ie
