You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
The mind boggles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34647454
In our house we have almost zero food waste. I'm half expecting a snotty note from the council because we never put our food recycling bin out.
They should leave the mud on them, say they're free range, corn-fed and organic, soil association approved, then sell them for double the price! 🙂
one of the reasons I shop at wholefoods. the veg all looks natural and misshapen rather than some homogenous soylent green-esque vision of what Tesco etc think veg should look like.
Just read this too. Infuriating.
Tesco actually sell what we call "Ugly Veg". Carrots, parnips, an onion, a swede and a leek all for a quid.
I worked on farms in Aus whilst travelling and lived off the 'wonky box' whilst working and camping, it's a ridiculous concept and needs to be changed!
EDIT - the 'wonky box' was a bucket in the corner of the sorting room and we were told to help ourselves because it was all rejected stuff, knobbly tomatoes and peppers galore! 🙂
I was just reading this- why do supermarkets think their customers are fussy about the shape of vegetables? I'm sure 99% of us are not!
I'm never really sure what the real story is with this. Its true that supermarkets tend to select the prettier and more uniform veg, but thats because supermarkets are self-service, customers select the prettier and more uniform veg.
But there are plenty of routes to market for veg other than supermarket shelves - the food manufacturing industry doesn't need to concern itself as to how attractive a parsnip is if its manufacturing truck-loads of soup, or frozen diced veg. The catering industry doesn't need to choose food on that basis either. Nor does the animal feed industry. The supermarkets themselves probably sell more veg in pre-prepared ready meals than they do in the veg isle and that veg has all been pealed and chopped.
Is there anything in the deal between the veg producers and the supermarkets that prevents farmers marketing the veg the supermarkets reject to anyone else?
Link to [url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11131994/Ugly-fruit-and-vegetables-prove-a-hit-in-France.html ]Telegraph[/url] article on same thing in France.
I blame the BBC.
When they cancelled "That's Life" the public no longer had an incentive to root through the supermarkets looking for a humorous carrot in the shape of a wanger.
Sad times.
I was just reading this- why do supermarkets think their customers are fussy about the shape of vegetables? I'm sure 99% of us are not!
In practice 'we' cumulatively are. We make our preferences known by what we collectively pick up or leave on the shelf.
The major factor in supermarkets coming to prominence was self service. In an old-school greengrocers you had to ask for stuff, not take it yourself. The grocer would pick and bag the food for you and in doing so he'd manage the stock - give everyone a bit of the freshest stuff, a bit of the oldest stuff and so on so at the end of the day he wasn't left with unsellable produce - in fact at the end of the day he'd ideally be left with no stock at all. Customers hated it even though it was done for their benefit because there was always the worry that someone else was being treated more favourably.
Supermarkets introduced self service and the went down a storm , because people could do what they've always done since - choose the best of everything - be that favoured customer they imagined the greengrocer had. Choose the freshest, tidiest, ongest dates produce from the back of the shelf, leave the rest for other customers to settle for. Except other customers won't and they'll just leave the last/ wonkiest / shortest-dated produce on the shelf.
some homogenous soylent green-esque vision of what Tesco etc think veg should look like.
You mean what 'people' think they should look like. If people would buy the ugly ones you can be sure Tesco would be selling them!
If people would buy the ugly ones you can be sure Tesco would be selling them!
They do! Seasonal Vegetable Bags.
If they put them in a separate box with yellow prices on them, they'd sell which would reduce waste and increase profits
Tesco weren't interested in me as a supplier.
[img] 
[/img]
What the article omits to say is that this "waste" actually goes to feeding cattle (or in some cases aerobic digesters).
maybe one of the supermarkets should grab hold of this and do some proactive, 'we are more sustainable than others, we sell ugly veg'.
or maybe the farmers need to sell to wholesalers who sell direct to kitchens and maybe to homeless charities to serve the homeless.
Sometimes I see bags of veg or fruit in supermarkets described as "all shapes and sizes", being sold off cheap. I buy them when I see them but they're rarely available.
More comedy veg please. My offering;
[img][url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5801/21923982773_a7f8ca8029_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5801/21923982773_a7f8ca8029_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/zpm9fZ ]Untitled[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/126516346@N08/ ]Phillip Dalton[/url], on Flickr[/img]
More comedy veg please. My offering;
I think I've met her on Tinder
This subject is close to my heart.
More loose fruit and veg needs to be sold.
Silly that cucumbers grow naturally in a curve. Growers have to use cylinders to make them straight.
We bought some strawberries from our local greengrocers at the end of Sept. for 50p per punnet. They were probably rejected by precious supermarkets because of the small size. The fruit was delicious and juicy.
We grow some of our fruit and veg so it's normal in our household to see odd shapes and sizes.
I personally very rarely shop in supermarkets now because of the very reasons Hugh is talking about.
Well written piece and here's hoping the supermarkets and some of their customers change their shopping habits.
edd - Member
What the article omits to say is that this "waste" actually goes to feeding cattle (or in some cases aerobic digesters).
The reason it omits saying that's because largely it doesn't. And even if it did it's still hugely wasteful sending good food for waste uses, the embodied impacts in producing it are largely lost on either of those routes.
Just watched the Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall thing. If Morrisons have cancelled the contract with the farmer as a result that'll be a shed load of bad publicity heading their way next week.
Also, 10 points if you can name the forum member who was on the recycling trip 😉
It made great viewing for 80s TV and now they're banned by Supermarkets. That's Life is dead.
tazzy
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
If supermarkets sold ugly ones as well as pretty ones then they'd have to sell the ugly ones more cheaply so they'd risk making less profit but they could agree to pay less for these to the suppliers. Thing is though, are we just producing too much so some will always be wasted? Hopefully this would result in less being produced and farmers using their land for other things? Or import less?
they'd have to sell the ugly ones more cheaply
Why? Unless the veg is bruised or damaged, the visual appearance means nothing. It'll all end up chopped up anyway so what does it matter how they look?
In practice 'we' cumulatively are. We make our preferences known by what we collectively pick up or leave on the shelf.
Did you watch the Hugh FW programme? They said that during a crop failure a few years ago, supermarkets relaxed the rules about veg appearance, and there was no drop in sales.
Clearly Bear's veg needs to get it on with Sandwicheater's offering. That is if it hasn't already met Suburbanreuben's big lad...
Only just watched this on catch up.
Amazed that the parsip farmers have been dropped by morrisons. I shall not set foot in one of their stores now, unless absolutely necessary.
Come on hts who is it?
A clue... Previously seen on TV in a wee filled tandem tricycle.
Only just seen this - I was aware that supermarkets were very selective re. the aesthetics of fruit/veg but had no idea the waste was of this magnitude!
Utterly ridiculous state of affairs. I think we as a society have royally ****ed ourselves by giving the supermarkets so much power, all in the name of convenience and low, low prices. 🙁
Harry the Spider - just watched again and saw J. and D. hiding under hard hats. 🙂 Was that his beautiful bike?
they'd have to sell the ugly ones more cheaply
Why? Unless the veg is bruised or damaged, the visual appearance means nothing. It'll all end up chopped up anyway so what does it matter how they look?
Because most people would choose the pretty ones given the choice - apparently.
Dickery of the twottiest magnitude.
When I worked on farms in Aus I was amazed at what was left on the field. If you go into most supermarkets you find that the produce is of similar size. This size commands the highest market price. If anything go too big it was junked as the cost of harvesting, packaging, transportation and sales cost made it better to plow the waste into the ground.
I worked long enough to get involved with some of the financial aspects. It was crazy that some of the produce we produced would be shipped 2000km to market rather than 100 to the local market as the per box sales price could be 2-3$ more. Then the stuff would come back to supply the local markets.
It was a pretty depressing sight some days and a pretty hard way for the farmer to make money.