Week 8 Discussion: Food Waste as a Global Crisis (TED)

• Initial post due Wednesday by 11:59pm.
• Response to TWO classmates due Friday by 11:59pm.

You have just watched a very funny segment on Food Waste from John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight. Our next video is a much more sober and expanded take on topic of food waste.

Please watch the TED Talk “The Global Food Waste Scandal” by Tristram Stuart. After you have watched the TED Talk, please answer the following questions in reply.

Here is a transcript of the TED Talk if you need to follow along or use it when you are working on your answers to the discussion questions: Transcript of Stuart.

Questions

1. What is the speaker’s main argument? Or what is his thesis?
2. Name at least 3 specific examples/pieces of evidence he uses to support his argument? What kind of evidence does he provide to prove his point? Were you surprised by his findings?
3. What was the biggest takeaway that you had from this video? What interested or shocked you the most?
4. How does Stuart first become concerned with food waste?
5. What are some of the consequences of food waste? To humans? To the environment?
6. Looking back to the first video by Oliver: how does Oliver’s segment compare to Stuart’s? Who do you find more credible? Why? (Be specific.) Both author’s present true facts: how does the way they present those affect their reliability and relatability?
7. As many of you identified in your charting activity, Stuart’s tone is much more serious and academic. What would happen to the reliability of his argument if he used a tone more similar to Oliver’s?
8. In the end, Oliver and Stuart present almost identical information (content) and argue a similar claim. Why do their presentations, then, look and sound so differently?