[sekasi]

This reminds me heavily on the 'perfect food' issue primarily in western countries. Every apple that's not pretty, every cucumber that's not straight and so on. All just goes from the supermarket into a bin.

It's a really horrible amount of waste that easily could solve many issues around poverty and hunger, but yet, very little action. Good to see more momentum around food waste.

[ams6110]

That's really not true. Imperfect food is generally not sent to the supermarket. Imperfect apples become applesauce. Imperfect cucumbers become relish or pickle slices. Imperfect tomatoes become ketchup.

[sekasi]

While you're not incorrect, there's a whole slew of the 'on the fence' produce that DOES get sent to supermarkets, and then don't get sold. There's been a few documentaries about it, well worth a watch.

[fraudsyndrome]

Yep, I know someone that ran a company stocking vegetables/fruits for one of the top supermarket chains here - they were the middlepeople who packed the pallets.

It's a very hard working/high demand place, it wouldn't be uncommon for the boss to have a 16 hour day every so often. Meth runs rampant for people to stay awake, people take a piss in the corner of the factory and have a smoke while packing. Anything that has a cut or bruise gets thrown in the trash, not sent to another place to get processed, not composted, just thrown in the trash.

Any staff can take home stuff at the end of the day that doesn't get thrown out, this would be enough veggies/fruits for 1-2 weeks for them.. just from a single day.

[debacle]

It's also horrible because, in the quest for the perfect looking food, flavor and nutrition are often the first thing to go.

[taneq]

Perfect looking with unnaturally long shelf life, yeah. Tomatoes certainly aren't the same thing I remember them being, for instance.

[randomdata]

The science suggests that food is becoming less nutritious because of more abundant carbon dioxide, not directly due to farming practices.