FOOD FIGHTER

Australia, 2017, 86 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Dan Goldberg.

This is an entertaining and challenging documentary. It was filmed over two years and, as it ends, the issues are still open-ended, especially for the Australian government.

Ronni Khan was born in South Africa, migrated to Australia. She was a successful businesswoman but was moved by the amount of food waste in Australia and throughout the world. She was described by associates as both fearless and fearsome.

The film offers a great deal of detail about her quest for saving good food, the war against waste, discussions with supermarkets, discussions with Qantas and the waste of food after flights…

With a great deal of support, volunteers, she ranged for food distribution in the capitals of Australia, did campaigns in the United Kingdom with the committee and a food fest supported by Jamie Oliver with the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, as patron after her visit to Australia and support of the project. There are also visits to South Africa and memories of fighting against apartheid. There are visits to Thailand although the work there was not ultimately successful.

So, plenty of on-screen time for Ronni Khan, her enthusiasm and persuasiveness, her moments of exasperation. There is plenty of screen time for her associates and their commenting on the work and working with her. There are also intimations of how the food can be used for those in need.

The situations were raised in the federal government, with a food fair and presence of politicians in Parliament house, with promises from the Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, and the comments that nothing seemed to have emerged. There seems to have been more success with his successor, Josh Frydenburg.

However, the work and campaigns for Oz Harvest are a work in progress…


From the film’s website:

Ronni Kahn used to be a contributor to Australia’s annual $20 billion food waste bill when she ran a successful corporate events company producing million-dollar dinners. Then she realised the absurdity of throwing away perfectly edible food, trading capitalism for social activism by founding Oz Harvest, a food rescue charity, in 2004. Filmed over two years and across four continents, ‘Food Fighter’ follows Ronni’s crusade against the global food waste scandal.


From Documentary Australia website: Synopsis

LOGLINE:

Oz Harvest CEO Ronni Kahn has enough passion and drive to move mountains – but can she reduce the cost of food waste to the Australian economy of $20 billion each year? Filmed over two years and on four continents, ‘Food Fighter’ is the inspirational story of one woman’s crusade to save perfectly edible food.

FULL SYNOPSIS:

Ronni Kahn used to be a contributor to Australia’s annual $20 billion food waste bill when she ran a successful corporate events company producing million dollar dinners. Then she realised the absurdity of throwing away perfectly edible food and decided to prioritise social activism over profit by founding Oz Harvest.

Now, she’s taking on politicians and big business to expose an inconvenient truth: that four million tonnes of edible food is discarded in Australia every year while up to two million Aussies suffer from food insecurity. And to add insult to injury, this food waste ends up in landfill, harming the environment by creating greenhouse gas emissions.

Filmed over two years and across four continents, ‘Food Fighter’ follows Ronni’s crusade as she partners with the United Nations, rubs shoulders with royalty and Jamie Oliver’s juggernaut, rifles through dumpster bins and holds government to account. From the recent death of her daughter-in law to the very recent birth of her first grandchild, Ronni’s personal rollercoaster runs parallel to her meteoric rise as the face of food waste.

Conceding she lacked the “courage� to stay and fight the Apartheid regime in her mother country, ‘Food Fighter’ also follows Ronni’s road to redemption, an inspirational woman bidding to make peace with her past. In the end, it reveals what sort of individual it takes to effect such profound change globally.