Produce being rejected due to looks
Locals have strong opinions about good food getting thrown out because it’s not pretty
A lemon takes four to seven months to go from flower to fruit. Not to mention the hours taken to tend to the plant, water it and eventually pluck the fruit from the tree.
Getting the perfect food picture for social media has cultivated a desire to shop for produce that exclusively looks conventionally attractive. This is promoting grocery stores to only sell good looking produce, throwing out fresh produce that doesn’t fit the conventional beauty standard.
Rita Rhammaz is the director and owner of Novalea Farmers’ Market based in north-end Halifax.
“This lemon is not conventionally attractive and doesn’t look like the other lemons. If it were to go to a chain store it would have been thrown out,” said Rhammaz, as she pointed out a mildly deformed lemon at her store.
Reports from the University of British Columbia say that roughly 40 to 50 per cent of global production of fresh produce is lost yearly because the produce is not aesthetically pleasing. According to this research, cosmetically perfect fruits and vegetables are the trend. They need to meet aesthetic standards to be sold in stores.
Rhammaz said that consumers have started judging fruits and vegetables by size, shape and lack of physical blemishes.
Novalea Farmers’ Market sees its business pick up from June through October, with vendors coming in and selling produce.
She said that shopping locally ensures that farmers have a platform to sell their produce. This cuts out the middlemen – who carry out aesthetic quality checks on the produce – who deem fruits and vegetables to be not pretty enough and thus the produce gets discarded.
The research by UBC said that the United States and Canada contributed US$680 billion worth of food loss in 2017 and that number has only increased.
Statistics Canada credits the increased cost of living to the rise in cases of food insecurity. It has risen from 16 per cent in 2021 to 18 per cent in 2022 and is only projected to grow.
Lauren Veinberg, a humanities student at Dalhousie University, said at a time when people are dying of hunger, throwing out ugly looking produce is counterproductive.
“We talk about going green, but then do not care about the carbon footprint of our food. I find it upsetting when food that has travelled miles gets thrown out because it is not pretty ... at least donate it to a food bank,” she said.
The Dartmouth Community Fridge outside Christ Church Parish Hall at 61 Dundas St. is open to donations. Their moto is, “take what you need, leave something if you can.”
Tina Dow is 86 years young and she drops off extra produce to the community fridge weekly.
“I feel it is awful for any food to go to waste. Food being discriminated against was unheard of in my time,” she said.
“Food is meant to be eaten. People who do not buy fresh food because it doesn’t look pretty are sick in the head.”
She is encouraging people to act responsibly and lobby for change so that good food doesn’t go to waste because it doesn’t look perfect.