A chef from Co. Wicklow is nearing the completion of a film centred around the future of food in Ireland.
The film will feature contributions from key players in the Irish food industry and look at how Ireland can seek to become more sustainable.
Chef Tadgh Byrne owns a contract catering company, which operates up and down the east coast. During his time cooking professionally, he began to noticed the nation’s eating trends, which is where the inspiration for the film began.
“We’re getting sicker,” he said.
“We’re eating more highly processed foods and getting more detached from where it comes from. Obesity is becoming a problem.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, he felt this detachment began to break down, and that there was an “acceleration” of interest in people wanting to consume Irish food.
“It’s confusing, with many conflicting diets out there and so much conflicting information,” he said.
“I feel like everybody wants to do the right thing but nobody knows what the right thing is.”
The film aims to provide clarity on this issue and identify threats in the industry.
Tadgh said the three biggest threats he has personally recognised as: Obesity; Climate change; and war.
Agriculture
Tadgh has been interested in agri-food from a young age. He briefly lived in Co. Wexford where he worked on barley and sugar beet farms, and also picked strawberries.
The film will feature some farming representatives from lobby groups, along with experts and research groups in agriculture.
It will be looking at the government’s agri food plan up untill 2025 and what will be included in the next plan.
Tadgh would also like to hear farmers’ own perspectives and is putting a call out to all farmers involved in horticulture, beef, dairy, or any other area to get in touch.
He aims to provide as much “balance” as possible, by speaking to as many members from each sector.
“We don’t want to demonise any industries,” Tadgh said.
The film will also speak to chefs and look at the idea of “robot chefs”, along with drone food deliveries.
Politicians have also been contacted for filming.
Upcoming film
The documentary film is about 90 minutes’ long, and will premier in December 2023, in Dublin.
There is just a month of filming left, so Tadgh, along with the film’s director, Max Barry is encouraging volunteers to come forward as soon as possible.
Director, Max Barry said: “As supply issues, inflation, climate change and war in Europe continue to cause instability, how we will grow, process, market and eat our food in the future is something that needs to be highlighted.”
Tadgh said this could “just be the beginning” of research into the future of food.
“It will be interesting to look back in 30 years and think well this is what people thought the future of food would look like and did it happen?” he added.
The trailer for the upcoming film is now available on YouTube.