Did you know that around 133,000,000 pounds of food are wasted annually by supermarkets and restaurants? There are many reasons for this high level of food waste, but one key explanation is that most grocery stores switch out less visually appealing foods, like vegetables with slight blemishes, to make room for food that consumers are more likely to purchase.
In light of this waste, Jamie Oliver has spearheaded a new initiative to sell slightly misshapen produce at a discount. The program is called Beautiful on the Inside and will begin in the UK in late January. It was created to alter the way that people view “imperfect” food items and also cut down on unnecessary waste. Oliver notes, “There’s no difference whatsoever in taste or nutritional value. This is perfectly good food that could and should be eaten by humans. When half a million people in the UK are relying on food banks, this waste isn’t just bonkers – it’s bordering on criminal.”
I have been thinking a lot about waste ever since I saw Eve Ensler’s incredible play entitled OPC, or Obsessive Political Correctness at the American Repertory Theater. It delved into topics like “freeganism”, anti-consumerism, the dichotomy between liberalism and radicalism, and it did so with great humor and self-awareness. After the actors took their bows, there was a post-show discussion with two Tufts students who had founded a program in their collective house that provided free meals to the public. The students were active dumpster divers, and the food that they served was all procured from dumpsters outside of well-known grocery stores. The sell-by dates that are printed on items are often not regulated well or representative of the food’s actual freshness or expiration time, and so many fresh items are thrown away that are perfectly fit for consumption. Ultimately, the students noted that they would love to live in a world where dumpster diving was made obsolete by a lack of food waste, but that for the moment, they were devoted to repurposing the large amount of eatable food that is wasted daily.
Written by Leslie Wolf, Class of 2015