New Irish TV series to visit Waterford

The new six-part documentary TV series ‘Food Matters’ presented by GIY Founder Mick Kelly airing on RTÉ One each Wednesday evening at 8.30pm is set to visit Waterford, Meath & Dublin for the programme set to air on April 12. 

The series uncovers Ireland’s food sustainability and how the food system is a major contributor to the climate change emergency.

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 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.  

It’s all about gaining a greater understanding of how food is produced and what we are using to grow and package our food. Mick says, “The more we understand this, the better we can be at being able to avoid contamination caused by food pollution. So in this episode, we want to dig deeper, speak to some people  who are taking food pollution seriously and looking at solutions.”

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 our 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. 

‘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 plot to the planet.