Picky Eaters

A recent and fascinating article recently published in Maclean’s really caught my eye. Did you know that “between 25 and 40 per cent of most fruit and vegetable crops are in fact rejected by Western supermarkets”?! The reason for all the waste: aesthetics. We like our produce to look as good as it will taste, and that implies no bruises, ideal size, and structure amoung many other things. If it does not make the cut, then it wont make the shelves.

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There is British supermarket that insists that all carrots must be perfectly straight or they will not be accepted. This is to ensure they are easy to peel. Furthermore, “in Britain, government law actually makes it illegal to sell carrots of less than one centimetre in diameter”

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Here are some more wasteful facts from the article:

-For every serving of fresh salad eaten in the U.K., another two have been thrown away

-The average American throws away 96 kg of edible food each year

- Canada’s landfills are responsible for up to 38% of human-made methane, a greenhouse gas

- one British wholesaler discarded 5,000 kiwis for being 4 grams lighter than the 62 gram cut-off

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I encourage you to please click here to read Nancy Macdonald’s article What a Waste.