The other day my husband and I were browsing the produce section in the grocery store. There was a large bin, or let's call it extra-large, of kiwi's. They were on sale, 10 kiwi's for $1. WOW!!! That is an incredible deal in Utah. A fruit that isn't native to our area being 10 cents a piece must mean that they are all rotten, right? So we wandered over to check it out and we were surprised. The kiwi was not rotten, but it was not perfect either. It was ugly kiwi. Think of a kiwi, a small round shape with light brown fuzzy skin. When cut open it has a perfect light green outside with small black seeds and a soft white center. First off, this kiwi wasn't fuzzy! It was like all the fuzz had been rubbed off. Second the kiwi fruits were incredibly large! They were about as big as a baseball. Not only that! many of the kiwi fruits had grown together like a pair. So there were all of these kiwi's connected together, the size of baseballs, and no fuzzy hairs. We could say that we had a good laugh as we pulled up kiwi after kiwi trying to find the largest or the oddest pairs. We even found 3 that had grown together. They looked gross. Like body parts that shouldn't be talked about here. So we bought 10 kiwi's to take home and to show my 5 brothers, who we knew would get a laugh out of it. We had no intention of eating the produce, just laughing at it.
When we returned home we showed my brothers, everybody laughed and then the kiwi was left on the counter. A day later my youngest brother asked me to peel the kiwi for him so he could eat it. I thought he was joking but he wasn't so I went ahead and peeled a pair of kiwi's. we sliced them up and put them in a bowl. We were hesitant to try them but we finally did and to our surprise they were sweet and juicy. Not to sound cliche', but that kiwi was one of the best I have had in Utah. By the end of the day all the ugly kiwi had been eaten.
This made me think about how much food is wasted or thrown away in grocery stores just because it is ugly. Because there was normal looking kiwi at the store and they were marked at 2 for $1. After doing some reading I found that an estimated 40% of food does not get eaten (Beating, 2). That was an astonishing amount to me, but I was glad to hear and find that this was too much for a lot of other people as well and that changes have started to correct this problem.
Some of the changes are made in the home. Consumers aren't throwing away large amounts of food. They aren't buying too much that will rot before it gets used. More frequent trips to the grocery store help with this. Others are composting and recycling. Some grocery stores have eliminated packaging so that you only have to buy what you need, and nothing extra. For example you could buy a few stems of cilantro instead of an entire bunch that will just sit in the refrigerator until it is black. I have also heard of a smoothie shop that only uses ugly fruits and veggies for its product. It is ironic how we as consumers have a difficult time eating something that doesn't look perfect. We manipulate food all the time to make it look "pretty" to us. I bet in other areas of the world they would think that our pretty food was ugly food.
Beating Food Waste with Bulk Bins and Ugly Produce : June 2015 : Contributoria - People Supporting Journalism. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
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