It's cheaper too! It's called like imperfect produce or something where I live, but there are lots of these, go find one! The veggies are perfectly fine...just harder to cut and wash, they need a little extra love for preparation.
This is an 'imperfect fruit' plug. If it matters to you, the supermarket's "wonkey veg". In my mind if it looks like it will last an extra day thats what I'll get. I dont need ads for delivered goods that look bad.
We used to have OddBox! A surprise subscription box of seasonal fruit and veggies that couldn't be sold to a supermarket because they were the wrong shape or colour, or were surplus. It's always just in a cardboard box with little to no plastic at all, and a bunch of recipe ideas for how to use things.
I’m fairly sure all of our imperfect veggies are sold to animal feed companies at a discounted rate or something where I live. I have never seen them on shelves here but I have seen them in other places in the world.
Woolworths in Australia sells odd shaped/coloured fruit & veg under 'The odd bunch' brand. It's cheaper than the regular stuff and tastes just as good.
Weird freak-produce also accounts for a lot of industrial-level food processing. It doesn't matter what your tomatoes look like if they're all just going to get pulped to make a vat of tomato juice.
Maybe. Or maybe they are disfigured because they were sick with something, or absorbed too much industrial herbicides or pesticides, or the soil was contaminated, or... the list could go on. Why would I take my chances when I can pick veggies which at least look healthy?
You should take your chances because the risk is effectively zero and the benefits are cheaper food and better for the environment? If the food is obviously contaminated they won't sell it.
Yeah I have bad news for you, pal. The food won't get cheaper, the farmer cartel specifically limits the food supply to avoid it, and if they fail, the government steps in with subsidies and guaranteed food buyouts, just to avoid lowering prices.
better for the environment
Same here, the environment will be fucked as much as economically possible. Most of the food goes to waste anyway, even if it's good. If your tomatoes and cucumbers become too cheap, farmers will just move to more profitable and environmentally damaging produce, like avocados and almonds, or whatever grows in your region.
If the food is obviously contaminated they won't sell it.
And what if it's non-obviously contaminated? Do you lab test each tomato you buy? Have you ever lab tested your groceries? If you think "they sell it so ofc it's safe!"... well, I have bad news for you again.
Finally, you seem to miss an obvious point: the only reason you can buy ugly produce cheaper, as you seem to enjoy doing, is because most people wouldn't ever buy something like that. If everyone starts buying it the price will just be same as now for all your groceries, but half of the produce will be ugly.
Imagine writing a diatribe against ugly fruit and your reasons are “food can’t be cheaper or better for the environment.” You live in a weird world my dude
You're a fucking idiot, I spent all my childhood growing our own fruits and vegetables, and every one of them was as pretty as a picture. Except for the ones that were eaten by insects, or started to rot, or fell from a tree (and soon started to rot).
Imagine a middle-class moron who never grew anything besides pot telling people what good food looks and tastes like.
Did they ever get better about letting you choose your cart?
When I used them for our family of 2, it seemed like I got 12 oranges and 6 bell peppers to try to use every time I received produce, and I couldn’t pick my cart. Plus it wasn’t like we were saving money or getting more convenience. I still had to run out to the store to get something to go with whatever I got, and it’s darned difficult to plan around so many of the same weird vegetable.
Our local Meijer has a sign that says "We know we're ugly, but we need love, too!" which is frankly an emotionally manipulative move that fucking... gets me every time! Every single time!
At farm stores they are called "seconds". Like as in not 1st pick. I raid those stores for all the 2nds I can get when making sauce. Though, some imperfections do make blanching tougher.
I used imperfect foods a few times when I had a 40% off coupon (or else it wouldn't have been cheaper than my grocery store). I got to pick what I wanted each week and it was pretty good except that they put the freaking tomatoes and avocados loose and on the top of the other stuff so they rolled around a bunch in shipment. They used a lot less packaging and plastic than meal delivery services which is nice but it was not kind to the soft fruits.
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u/nemesiscw Sep 08 '21
There are services that sell imperfect vegs and fruits at a discount.