This article was taken from the March 2016 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Not all fruit and veg lives up to the aesthetic standards imposed upon them by distributors, but that doesn't mean they aren't tasty.
To this end, co-operatives are launching campaigns to get supermarkets to start selling misshapen items. It's a huge market -- up to 40 per cent of fresh produce in the UK is rejected because it doesn't look right, according to the Soil Association, with much of it ending up as landfill.
Portugal's Fruta Feia ("ugly fruit") uses a cooperative model to deliver boxes of otherwise rejected vegetables straight from the farmer to the consumer. "The amount of food that's produced but not eaten is shocking," says Fruta Feia's Joana Baptista. "Besides wasting the food itself, it's a waste of water, energy, soil and labour."
The co-operative says it's already saved 180 tonnes of food from the bin, and the model has been echoed by Californian startup Imperfect Produce, which launched in summer 2015. French supermarket Intermarché and UK Asda have also promoted "wonky" fruit at discount prices.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
