THE BEAUTY OF IMPERFECT PRODUCE - Adela Keller
Photo: https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/get-box-ugly-fruits-and-vegetables-delivered-your-door-each-week.html
Have you ever noticed that all the produce at the grocery store never has any major imperfections? Well that’s where Imperfect Produce comes into play. Based in San Fransisco, Ben Simon the CEO buys produce from large farms that doesn’t meet the quota. He noticed that these fruits and vegetables are being thrown out and sometimes donated. To help keep good produce out of landfills be created the idea of accumulating these ugly produce and selling them at discounted prices to consumers. People in the area and nearby cities of California can subscribe and get weekly or biweekly deliveries of fresh produce at discounted prices. They get a wide range of fruits and vegetables that changes as the seasons change.
Prior to starting Imperfect Produce in 2015 Ben Simon and cofounder Ben Chesler we’re both passionate about saving food. While I’m college they created the FRN (Food Recovery Network) that helped reduce food waste at universities. Their passion for reducing food waste led them to see the beauty in imperfect produce.
Besides not wasting perfectly good food Imperfect Produce is also good for the environment. Minimizing waste in landfills is always beneficial for a sustainable future. It also helps farmers make a larger profit by selling more food and saves them money, energy, and water because the are reaching a higher demand without raising costs and resources.
So Imperfect produce does sound like such a great company, but for small business farmers it can hurt them. The concept of imperfect produce and resale has always been around but not commercially. With commercial Imperfect Produce consumers are no longer going to farmers markets and making that farm to table connection; but instead going with convenience and affordability.
https://www.imperfectproduce.com/about-us
Supplement resource: https://newfoodeconomy.org/imperfect-produce-ugly-food-waste-commodification-community-supported-agriculture/
Questions:
Would you buy imperfect produce?
Do you think it is a good idea, or ditch the imperfect produce and just donate the produce to food banks?
How can Imperfect Produce work with small farms to minimize waste, since both have the similar goal of reducing food waste?
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