Installation visualizes amount of food that society wastes
Exhibit consists of vegetables, fruits rejected by supermarkets
It’s supposed to be an ugly food market, comprised of fruits and vegetables that have been rejected by stores and supermarkets. Yet there’s nothing ugly about it. Some bell peppers are a tad wrinkly and others aren’t red enough; a few carrots are misshapen and the baby potatoes are too small. But overall, the food looks scrumptious.
This market — it’s actually one of 50 installations at EDIT: Expo for Design Innovation and Technology open to the public at 21 Don Roadway until Oct. 8 — sheds light on the issue of food waste.
“I was totally blown away,” says Toronto artist Robert Cram, referring to the “crazy amount of food waste.”
He created the exhibit in partnership with the Gladstone Hotel and Second Harvest.
“We need to re-address food esthetics and how we think about the look of food,” he says. “We treat it like it should be this polished commodity when it’s an organic product.”
In North America, it’s estimated that more than 30 per cent of produce is rejected by retailers for not meeting industry standards regarding size, quality, colour, shape. Meanwhile, one in eight Canadian families struggle to put food on the table, according to Second Harvest, the largest food rescue charity in Canada. Second Harvest gets excess and unwanted food from 472 farmers, retailers and distribution centres and delivers it to 253 social service agencies in Toronto, including food banks, shelters and meal programs.
It also helps stock 15 food hubs across the province, which are organizations that then distribute food to local agencies.
Last year, the Toronto-based organization redirected 10.7 million pounds of fresh and healthy food, which would have ended up in a landfill or composting site.
The food is donated for a variety of reasons, including overproduction, looming expiry dates, mislabeling, discontinued or damaged packaging, and not meeting industry standards. For example, the carrots used in the installation were rejected because they weren’t the correct roundness and length.
“It’s all good food,” says Debra Lawson, executive director of Second Harvest. “It becomes waste when somebody lets it go to waste — that’s why we use the word rescue.”
She’d like to see changes at both industry and consumer levels — and notes that food waste is a global issue.
“We waste over $31billion of food in Canada, 51 per cent of that is wasted in our own homes. The only way you can get people to change is to educate, communicate and train. Nobody is going to change unless they have a reason to change.”
Inspiring change, and showcasing how design can improve the world, is the whole point behind the EDIT festival, which occupies the former Unilever detergent factory in the East Harbour. It is organized by the Design Exchange in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme.
EDIT’s overarching theme “Prosperity for All” was inspired by the United Nations 17 goals for sustainable development, a worldwide call to action to end extreme poverty, hunger, food waste, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Exhibits are grouped by theme: cities/shelters, health care, education and nourish. It’s in Nourish — focused on improving nutrition and fighting hunger — where you’ll find Cram’s installation, called Decorative Fruit. It includes a functioning market — items will be given to visitors and restocked — and a gallery with three-dimensional printed bronze-cast decorative fruit sculptures based on rejected items.
The installation’s size is a visual representation of one quarter of the food delivered by Second Harvest in a single day.
A donation box has been set up to help the organization raise funds to buy a ninth truck, because its current fleet of eight can’t keep up with demand.
Cram spent a day riding along with a truck driver, doing pickups and deliveries to better understand the scope of what Second Harvest does. It was eye-opening. “It’s hard to walk away from it and think we’ve got this food thing under control in the city.”
The issue of food waste will also be highlighted in a free event called Feeding the 5,000. On Oct. 8, Food Network star Bob Blumer will host a Thanksgiving feast for 5,000 people made with food rescued by Second Harvest. Zero waste is an occasional series.