The Shocking Idea of Eating Ugly Vegetables.

Like many people watching a TV program about food waste I was shocked. Especially to discover the quantities of good food wasted. I was not previously aware that some of this waste is just because the vegetables did not pass the supermarkets/shoppers appearance perfection test, the one required to get them from the farm to a place on the supermarket shelf.

It has never crossed my mind to discard one of my home grown vegetables because it was not as good looking as the shop bought equivalent.  But then if I pause and think about it maybe I am guilty and when I have to buy vegetables in a shop I may have unintentionally sorted through the tray for the 'best buy'.   However, if  next to the 'immaculate vegetables' on the shelf  there was a tray of the containing the vegetables that were more irregular looking and the price of those edible good quality but more irregular looking vegetables were a slightly cheaper, I know that I am intelligent enough to go for the lower cost option.

I lost respect for the supermarket that ran a very poor example of a test of the side by side pretty versus ugly vegetable sales, as I felt they only wanted it to confirm their current beliefs and practice.
Besides if some of the vegetables are not fit for customers eyes then why not make them into soups and sauces to sell. Such soups could be frozen and given away to food help charities, served in the shops cafes or donated to food banks. It is a sad world that discards such quantities of food when others need it.

If an allotment grown  vegetable ever turns out to be that ugly I guess it could always play a starring role on a bloggers website but so far I have not discovered one.