Please Love ‘Ugly’ Fruit!
Half of All Fruit and Vegetables Discarded for Their ‘Look’
Look: there is an easy, very easy way how to prevent the further deterioration of the environment and help combat climate change. As easy as buying and eating “ugly” fruit and vegetables, just to start with.
How come?
Let’s take the case of carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and bananas. Did you know that between 25 and 30 per cent of all carrots don’t make it to grocery stores because of aesthetic or physical irregularities, according to the UN leading food and agriculture organisation, FAO.
It is often said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder –the organisation adds– but when it comes to fruit and vegetables, one third of them never even make it to our grocery store shelves because they are rejected on their way from the farm to the store.
“While supermarkets have a part to play in this, we must also examine our own consciences. Would we choose the oval-shaped, matte-coloured apple or the perfectly rounded shiny one? One of these would definitely make a nicer Instagram photo than the other, but in the end, both would taste equally as good and would satisfy your hunger.”
The UN specialised body then reports that 815 million people go hungry ever year, while the world as a whole wastes or loses 1/3 of what is produced. In the case of fruits and vegetables, almost half (45 per cent) is wasted.
“In our world of increasing extreme weather events and changes in climate, saving ugly fruit isn’t only an issue of ethics, it is a question of resources.”
In fact, valuable natural resources go into producing the food we throw away.
Just know that it takes 13 litres of water to grow 1 tomato and 50 litres of water to produce one orange. It also takes seeds, soil, labour of farmers and even the fuel that goes into transporting the food.
Baher Kamal is member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, of Other News, and former Senior Advisor to the Director general of the international news agency IPS (Inter Press Service).
He is an Egyptian-born, Spanish-national, secular journalist, with over 45 years of professional experience. Since the 70s, he specialised in all development related issues, as well as international politics.
Baher Kamal‘s article was published in Wall Street International. Go to Original. Recent articles by Baher Kamal in Human Wrongs Watch:
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