Tonight, cook and throw away 1/3 before serving it. Sounds wasteful and stupid. But that’s how much food we grow in our world that goes to waste. Meanwhile, famine, hunger, and food insecurity among children exist while our landfills overflow. Supermarkets put out only the perfect produce. They know we won’t pay their prices for misshapen vegetables or fruit that has a slight bruise. So they toss it out, even though it tastes the same and is just as nutritious. After all, it’s grown the same, in dirt or dangling from buggy trees.
I like the idea of a Canadian company who packages its appropriately named “No Name Naturally Imperfect” produce. These fruits and veggies can sell to markets cheaper, then markets can sell to us for less, and some major chains are planning to do just that. I’ll be in line to buy it. And I’ll lobby my lawmakers not to cut out farmers’ livelihood but put the extra produce to work feeding hungry people.