Retailers and consumers have set beauty standards on our own food that if they do not meet certain criteria, such as being a certain size or having no blemishes or scratches, they are not acceptable and will go uneaten. Ben Chesler, the COO of Imperfect Produce explains, “Ugly fruits and vegetables are the 20% of fruits and vegetables that are grown on farms that don’t make it to supermarkets each year and that’s usually for small cosmetic reasons like too big too small or its the wrong shape, size of color.” Ugly fruits are perceived as hideous creatures;  if they don’t look a certain way they must not be safe to eat nor good quality, even though they are perfectly fine on the inside.

Where did These Standards of Produce Beauty Begin?

The United States Department of Agriculture within Agricultural Marketing Service created standards to help describe the quality and condition of commodities within a marketplace. These standards are placed for all different types of food to help create a consistent language to describe the quality and condition of the items. Some of these food types such as meat, dairy, and grains, have these standards as requirements for food safety, but for fruits and vegetables, these standards are voluntary in that they can be graded on their size and shape but it does not mean they are unsafe to eat. Retail stores have now taken these to extremes that by not perfectly fitting the standards, they are unwanted in their markets. Here are some examples of these standards:

• Cauliflower needs to be the perfect shade of white and if they look yellow, then they won’t be accepted.
• To be considered a “good pepper” it must be able to stand on its own “feet”, basically saying it can sit up straight. If it cannot stand up straight, then it does not cosmetically fit the standards due to a small bump, even when the peppers are still perfectly healthy to eat. 
• Carrots that you find in the store are straight. But due to rough spots in the dirt, carrots may twist and turn while forming in the ground. As farmer Juan Gonzalez explains, “Nothing wrong with them, they just look funky.”

Nature Isn’t Perfect

There is a common misperception that if produce does not look a certain way or is deformed, it is genetically modified. However, many of these imperfections are created when organically grown too. These imperfections may be caused by weather conditions or soil conditions, such as the ground being hard and resulting in the produce bending in different ways. It could also be due to harvesting the produce too soon or too late to meet the perfect size or color. Either way, we reject a lot of food for not meeting these beauty standards. 

How does Food Waste Impact Farms and the Environment?

Loss in Revenue:

Farmers put in a lot of time, effort, and money to make food that markets end up not taking, leading to revenue rotting on the fields. For farmer Manuel Cherry he says, “Sometimes you get 20% waste, sometimes 40%, sometimes half, up to 50%. Costs us 50 cents. The growers put their heart and soul into it. Worth nothing.”  And for farmer Juan, 10 million pounds of food his farm grows is rejected each year for not being cosmetically pleasing. If we keep to these strict standards, it may lead to minimal revenue for farms to barely stay in business, or prices will have to increase in order to keep farmers afloat. 

Loss of Precious Environmental Resources: 

Producing food has huge environmental impacts that get worse when resources are wasted. Approximately 70% of water available is used for agriculture for the world; 80% for the United States. The UN estimates 30% of agricultural land available, about 1.4 billion hectares, produces food that just gets wasted. That is equivalent to up to 170 trillion liters of water wasted that could be used to fill Lake Geneva three times. 

In the United States alone, 15.7% of US energy usage and 50% of all land is used for agricultural purposes. Wasted energy means omitting unnecessary emissions to escalate climate change further. Wasteful land usage creates the loss of precious nutrients and good quality soil which degrades the land so it can not be used in the future. As precious resources like these are used and wasted in the production of imperfect foods, resources become scarcer and make it more expensive to produce food in the future, meaning there is more economic reason to utilize all of the food that is produced.

Filling Up Landfills to Release Methane:

Since there is a lack of composting programs available, most of the unwanted produce ends up in landfills. In California, the Salinas dump is referred to as “the salad bowl of the world” because a majority of its heads of lettuce, along with other fruits and vegetables that go to waste. As Assistant General Manager Salinas Valley Solid Waste, Cesar Zuniga, explains, “A lot of this bag stuff goes East. By the time it gets to the stores, hits the shelf, most markets don’t want it.” When food sits in the landfills and does not have enough oxygen to break down, it slowly releases methane traps 100 times more heat than carbon dioxide in a five year period to worsen the acceleration of climate change. 

Solutions for the Problem 

Although food waste is inevitable to occur on farms due to weather, pests, and disease, changing the view of imperfect produce is a good solution to reduce large amounts of wasted food, help reduce world hunger, and reduce environmental impacts from wasted resources. 

Ugly Produce Programs: 

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Ugly produce companies are working with farmers to make sure that their perfectly good ugly produce still goes to good use. Popular brands like Misfit Markets, Imperfect Foods, and Hungry Harvest buy the produce from farmers at discounted prices so that the companies can sell the produce at lower prices than what you get at the store, so those who are on tight budgets can still have access to fresh produce. Some users have commented that the food is, “Just as good as grocery store quality…and is at a great price.” The founders of Imperfect Food find that their service is the solution to minimizing food waste. Ben Chesler, COO of Imperfect Food says that food waste is, “one of the leading solids by weight in our nation’s landfill” and by their company seeing the treasure in imperfect produce is helping to reduce environmental impacts and world hunger. 

These companies have been able to make a huge impact: Hungry Harvest from 2014 to 2017 helped to recover 1 million pounds of food, and from 2015 to present day, Imperfect Food has been able to recover over 116 million pounds of food. And not only are they helping divert food, but they are helping farms recover profits that would have gone wasted and have them prosper more than ever. Juan Gonzalez has said that because of Imperfect Foods’ efforts, “Profitability has gone up, our employees production numbers have gone up, field harvest numbers have gone up,” and with solutions like these, “California could end world hunger.”

Discounted Produce in Supermarkets:

Some imperfect produce gets ships to retailers and if it is too expensive to ship it back to the farm, they end up tossing it in the garbage bin. Some restaurants are taking a stance on this by selling the imperfect produce at a discounted price in which they may not make a high amount of revenue, but is better than the food getting thrown out altogether. Some stores like Whole Foods and Giant Eagle are places that have these discounted programs. Ask your grocery store directly if they have discounted food programs you can check out and maybe get a good bargain due to a couple of bruises. 

Some stores divert imperfect produce from being wasted in their stores by having donation programs to provide food to those in need within their community. Sprouts Farmers Market is a superstar in reducing food waste through their Food Rescue Program. Their program diverts unmarketable produce and food waste by creating meals for those in need or sending it to composting programs rather than the landfill. In one of their locations within Alhambra, California, in 2018 alone, they donated 59 tons of excess food to support local families and composted 57 tons of food scraps. If more efforts were made like these, less people in communities would go hungry and more nutritious compost could be made rather than methane emissions. 

Connecting Food Donation Programs and Farmers:

As we have seen in times like COVID-19, many families are going hungry and farmers are forced to have perfectly good food go unharvested. Having better connections with food donation programs and farmers can ensure that the food can still go to good use. Organizations such as Food Donation Connection helps to connect food service companies and harvest programs to have alternatives to discarding edible food. States can help with the disconnect in the value chain as well to provide funds to food donation banks so the food banks can directly buy from the farmers their excess food. This way, donation banks can get the supplies they need and still support the farmers to receive some sort of revenue for imperfect food/excess food. 

Recovery Food to Feed Livestock:

If it doesn’t look great to us, there’s many animals that would be happy to chow down on the produce that may not meet our standards. The Environmental Protection Agency helps give guidelines on how to work on donating food. There are guidelines for this to ensure the safety for animals for animals, but it is a way farmers can support one another and reduce costs for providing feed to the animals.

Changing Our Mindsets on the Beauty Standards for Our Food 

In order for the issue around imperfect produce to stop, it requires us to change our mindset. It requires educating each other and our children to know what is safe to eat no matter what size, shape, or if there are a couple bruises. When going to the store, instead of getting produce that fits that perfect mold, grab the one that looks a little less perfect. Communicate and write to your local grocery stores to see if imperfect produce stands could be established. As consumers take action to say every piece of produce is beautiful, it is another step in reducing food waste across the value chain.

Sources:

• Fruit & Veggies- 3 Ways to Save Ugly Produce by The List Show TV
• Changing the Stigma Around Ugly Fruits and Vegetables- CBS News
• Edible, but Ugly by New York Times 
• Meet the Millennials Championing Ugly Produce by Bustle
• Ugly food: a solution to food wastage? By The Feed SBS
• How Ugly Produce can Help Solve Hunger by Evan Lutz
• USDA Agricultural Marketing Service- Grades and Standards
• The Problem of Food Waste by Foodprint
• ‘We Had to Do Something’: Trying to Prevent Massive Food Waste By Michael Corkery and David Yaffe-Bellany
• Food Waste on the Farm by Move by Hunger