031 | 100 Ronni Kahn: Fighting food waste

Ozharvest founder and chief executive Ronni Kahn leads the organisation’s mission to save surplus food from landfill and halve food waste by 2030. Reducing food waste is one of the best ways to combat climate change, as it currently generates a staggering 8-10 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.

See Ronni Kahn in conversation with journalist Yaara Bou Melhem, recorded live at the Powerhouse as part of 100 Climate Conversations. Entry is free, but bookings are essential as places are limited. Doors open at 9.15am for a 9.30am start. No late admittance.

100 Climate Conversations is a two-year survey of visionary Australians who are accelerating the net zero carbon revolution. To find out more and subscribe to the podcast visit 100climateconversations.com.

OzHarvest chief executive Ronni Kahn AO founded the food rescue charity in 2004, after noticing the huge volume of restaurant and supermarket food going to waste. Food rescue reduces waste, which has an important role to play in the battle against climate change. Kahn’s advice to those suffering from eco-anxiety is that one of the most effective actions to combat this sense of helplessness is to reduce their own food waste. She is the subject of a 2018 feature-length documentary, Food Fighter, and her memoir, A Repurposed Life, was published in 2020.

Yaara Bou Melhem is a Walkley award-winning journalist and documentary maker who has made films in the remotest corners of Australia and around the world. Her debut documentary feature, Unseen Skies, which interrogates the inner workings of mass surveillance, computer vision and artificial intelligence through the works of US artist Trevor Paglen was screened in competition at the 2021 Sydney Film Festival. She is currently directing a series for the ABC and is the inaugural journalist-in-residence at the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism & Ideas working on journalistic experimental film.