Wasted Video Descriptive Transcript

Summary: In this video, researcher Prof. Ralph Martin discusses the issue and impact of food waste in the home. 

0:00 - 0:05
[Screen plays images of thrown out and rotting foods]
Ralph Martin: When we're wasting food we're not only wasting the actual food, 

0:06 - 0:11
[Screen plays a video panning across a wheat field]
Ralph Martin: we're wasting the energy that was used to produce the food and process it and to transport it. 

0:12 - 0:17
[Screen shows a female farmer walking through a dairy barn]
Ralph Martin: We're wasting the water that was used to produce the food; we're wasting the energy of people

0:18 - 0:21
[Screen shows people talking at a farm stand]
Ralph Martin: and all the care and effort that people put into producing that food.

0:23 - 0:30
[Screen shows Ralph Martin speaking behind a desk]
Ralph Martin: My name is Ralph Martin, the Loblaws Chair of Sustainable Food Production and a professor in the Plant Agriculture Department at the University of Guelph.

0:31 - 0:34
[Screen fades to black and white text on a faded background of food waste]
Text: wasted
The Challenge of Food Waste at the Home

0:35 - 1:06
[Screen shows Ralph Martin speaking behind a desk]
Ralph Martin: The food waste first came to my attention when I first read the George Morris report by Martin Gooch in 2010, and in that report he talked about how 
[Screen overlays black text of statistics, then fades back to Ralph Martin] 
Ralph Martin: 40% of the food waste in Canada is wasted and that's a cost to the Canadian economy of 27 billion dollars. 
When I started this position in August 2011, addressing food waste and particularly looking at reducing food waste became something that was very important to me.

1:07 - 1:15
[Screen shows garbage being collected by women in white truck, street views of garbage collection]
Ralph Martin: We focused most of our research to date, here at the University of Guelph, on reducing food waste in the home. 

1:16 - 1:34
[Screen shows Ralph Martin speaking behind a desk]
Ralph Martin: And according to data we have, about half of the 40% of food that is wasted, is wasted at the home, that's why we think it's important to look at this. Our first goal is to get data to find out how much is actually being wasted. 

1:35 - 1:54
[Screen shows women organizing waste in truck, images of wasted bread, meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables and other]
Ralph Martin: We did some curb side work, where we not only weighed the food waste but we went through the garbage and picked it out and we divided it into categories of bread and pasta, meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and other. 

1:55 - 2:07
[Screen shows Ralph Marting speaking behind a desk, image of wasted fruits and vegetables, back to Ralph Martin]
Ralph Martin: It was very interesting that over half the food waste, by weight,  was from fruits and vegetables.
We're also now wanting to weigh food waste 

2:08 - 2:21
[Screen shows female works collecting and sorting household waste]
Ralph Martin: at curb side and then we want to link that to a survey to find out from households what their understanding is about the food they waste and some of their 

2:22 - 2:29
[Screen shows Ralph Martin speaking behind a desk]
Ralph Martin: habits that might relate to food waste. For example we'll be asking questions about the size of a fridge and how often people shop, and that type of thing.

2:30 - 2:34
[Screen shows women moving curbside waste]
Ralph Martin: So according to some of the data I've looked at the average household, which is by the way only 

2:35 - 2:50
[Screen shows Ralph Martin sitting behind desk]
Ralph Martin: 2.1 people per household -- I was surprised it was that small - the average household spends about $140 per week on food [Screen overlays black text of statistic]. 

2:51 - 2:59
[Screen shows black text of statistic on faded background of garbage bags; text fades out]
Ralph Martin: If half of the 40%, in other words 20%, is wasted each week, that's 28 dollars, that means they're tossing away 28$ worth of food. 

3:00 - 3:09
[Screen shows Ralph Martin sitting behind desk]
Ralph Martin: I personally think that, probably, we shop too infrequently, if we shopped a couple more times per week, 

3:10 - 3:17
[Screen shows people talking at farm market stand]
Ralph Martin: picked things up on the way home from work, and made sure we used what we bought at the time that we bought it, or very close to that time, 

3:18 - 3:33
[Screen shows video of full refridgerator]
Ralph Martin: and if we had smaller fridges so that we could actually see what was there, and so that items don't get buried at the back of the fridge where we can't see them, I think those are practical ways we could all reduce food waste. 

3:34 - 3:57
[Screen shows Ralph Martin speaking behind desk]
Ralph Martin: It's all a matter of consciousness and thinking about it and as we go into the future and look at climate change and some of the variables that are going to come along with climate change, intense weather events and so on, I think it's going to be important to be thankful for the food that we do have and to value it, and to use it appropriately.

3:57 - 4:02
[Screen fades to black; white text fades in, then out]
Text: Funding for this video was provided by the W.S. Stan Young Memorial Communications Grant through the OAC Alumni Foundation.

4:03 - 4:06
[White text fades in]
Text: Special thanks to Professor Ralph Martin, Professor Mike Von Manssow, Professor Kate Parizeau, Mychal-Ann Hayoe, Kate Tomen and Kim Stemshorn

4:07 - 4:10
[Screen changes to show blue and green OAC logo on black background, white white website link]
Text: www.uoguelph.ca/oac