EXPLORING IRELAND’S FOOD SUSTAINABILITY AND CLIMATE EMERGENCY
FOOD MATTERS is a brand new RTÉ One series which uncovers Ireland’s food sustainability, and explores how the food system is a major contributor to the climate change emergency.
Presented by GIY (Grow it Yourself) founder Michael Kelly, this brand new six-part series sees Michael travelling throughout the country, meeting farmers, food producers, food experts, climate experts and chefs.
He also talks to economists, ecologists and activists as he digs deep to uncover the complexity of the Irish food system and how it works, delivers and impacts the environment.
“The food system is a major contributor to the climate emergency, and the choices we make each day around food can be some of the most compelling pieces of climate action we can take in our lives”, says Michael.
“There are inspiring solutions to the problems in our food system happening right under our noses. In FOOD MATTERS I travel around Ireland exploring these issues and meeting the people and projects that can help change the food system, one meal at a time”.
FOOD MATTERS is filmed at GROW HQ in Waterford, the home of GIY, as well as on location in counties Cork, Kildare, Dublin, Westmeath, Kerry, Meath, Wicklow, Tipperary, Limerick, Kilkenny and Wexford.
Programme three: Stop Food Pollution
Michael Kelly heads to Kildare in programme three of Food Matters, to visit Paul Fogarty from the Irish Wildlife Trust to discover some of the effects of food pollution getting into our waterways and farmlands.
In Waterford he meets lecturer in regenerative farming Mike Walsh who has completely removed pollutants from a farm. He also visits young dairy farmer James Foley to talk about his story of converting to fully organic farming.
Heading to Dublin, Michael and journalist John Gibbons discuss the impact of plastic on our planet, before Michael meets environmental lawyer and activist Mindy O’Brien to talk about the use of plastic in our food system.
Michael then visits Jess Dollinger at the Good Neighbour shop in Dundrum, where they chat about the shop’s solution to food pollution – food that’s grown organically, locally, and sold in the zero-waste shop with no plastic in sight. FOOD MATTERS is produced by David Hare of InProductionTV and Scéal Creative for RTE, and supported by the EPA Stop Food Waste and ReThink Ireland campaign
Press enquiries:
TVPR
Pauline Cronin 087 2629967
Michael Kelly is founder and CEO of GIY, a social enterprise that aims to help 100 million people to grow some of their own food for a healthier, more sustainable world by 2030.
He co-presented three series of Grow, Cook, Eat on RTE and Amazon Prime. He presents and co-produces a new series, Food Matters, which airs on RTÉ in March 2023.
Founded in 2008, GIY’s mission is to inspire, educate and enable a global movement of food growers, whose collective actions will help to rebuild a sustainable food system. Each year GIY is supporting over 1 million people to grow, cook and eat some of their own food at home, school, work and in the community, via content, events, campaigns and products. GIY are passionate about the power of food growing experiences to give people a transformative understanding of food (‘food empathy’) that leads to pro-environmental behaviours. GIY works with some of the world’s leading brands, governments and foundations.
In 2016, GIY developed a home for the GIY movement, and a model of a sustainable food system called GROW HQ in Waterford, Ireland. GROW HQ’s cafe serves delicious and nutritious homegrown, seasonal food grown in living soil, with a zero food waste ethos and won national Cafe of the Year 2020 and is one of the Sunday Times’ Top 100 Restaurants in Ireland in 2020. www.growhq.org.
Michael co-produced and presented three series of ‘Grow, Cook, Eat’, GIY’s primetime TV series which had over 12 million viewers to date. All 3 series are now available on Amazon Prime globally. He has written 5 books about food – the latest of which, The GIY Diaries, was published by Gill and was nominated for Best Cookbook in the Irish Book Awards. He is an Ashoka Fellow, and a member of The Irish Food Writers Guild. He has written columns on food in The Journal.ie, The Irish Times, The Irish Independent and Food & Wine Magazine. He is a board member of Commonland.
He is a passionate speaker on the role that food can play in improving our health and the health of this planet and has spoken at the Do Lectures in Wales, Web Summit in Ireland and Fifteen Seconds in Austria. Mick was the 2017 Local Food Hero in the Food & Wine Awards.
He lives in Dunmore East with his wife Eilish and two young GIYers.
TVPR
Pauline Cronin 087 2629967