Flaws Build Character

Imagine that you were an alien visitor to an American grocery store and you step into the produce section.  I think you would honestly believe that tomatoes only grow 16-18 cm.  Or that corn is always about 8-9 inches.  And that carrots are always straight and in a bunch.

You would actually have a lot of data to prove your point.  Each grocery store you went into would look exactly the same, with the fruits and vegetables always meeting those expectations.

However, you would be wrong.

In fact, the truth is that a lot of fresh, edible produce is thrown away because it does not meet standards set by the FTC and the Grocery Manufactures Association.

On average, U.S. farmers are forced to dispose of approximately 1/5 of their entire harvest because it does not fulfill visually uniform and blemish-free criteria set forth by the FTC, modern advertising imagery and consumer desire. Other resources cite that figure being as high as 50%. That means that every twisty-goateed-carrot, two-headed eggplant, and eyeball-ridden potato that they encounter is either left on the fields to rot before finally being tilled underground or immediately carted off to the dumpster. Remarkably, the UK has followed suit for decades with the EU-imposed regulation of 26 varieties of fruit and vegetables that must be banned for sale if they are under-sized and/or misshapen – resulting in an annual crop loss for British farmers of 20%.

But during this time of an economic recession, as well as concerns about global warming, is this really a good practice to keep in place.  There are estimates that with minor changes to the United States system of throwing out flawed produce, we could save tens of BILLIONS of dollars.  And, this

Right now, I am thinking about the ridiculousness of the Monsanto campaign…”Helping Farmers Produce More”.  Their claim is that with a looming 9 Billion people… they will need to assist farmers to produce more.

It seems that if they are throwing away 20-50% of edible, nutritious food, the need for technological advances seems unwarranted.  But, maybe I am missing something.

I was happy to read that the UK recently changed their food policy to allow for “flawed” produce to hit the store shelves.  However, there are stipulations as the product must be labeled “Product Intended for Processing”.  This is fruit that does not meet visual standards, but is perfectly nutritive and can be used for things like preserving into jams and jellies or used in fruit salad.

Does the ridiculousness of this strike anyone else?  Do you think our ancestors, in the African desert, would have passed by fruit because it crooked?  The fact that we have these standards should be a sign of how out of control the food system has become. This mask of perfection that is created is distancing ourselves from the value of real food.  It is a sign of the elitism that we have created in this country surrounding food.  We are saying, loud and clear, that it is better for you to be starving on the street than eat an imperfect apple.  (I wonder what the apple looked like in the Garden of Eden.)

I think that this policy needs to change.  Food is a gift we have been given, whether you believe through evolution or divinity.  The more we get detached from the variations in food, the more we ensure the growth of huge corporate entities that create our food.  But more importantly, I feel it places the last nail in the human coffin.

by Shelley Boyle