Beauty IS only Skin Deep!

I watched a video today on how the French are reducing fresh produce waste by changing their marketing strategies.  The problem:  Supermarkets only sell fruits and vegetables that meet set standards of appearance.  These make attractive displays which entice consumers to purchase the produce.  Blemished or odd shaped fruits and vegetables are rejected and disposed of for fear they will not sell.  There is nothing wrong with the rejected produce except that  how it looks does not meet the standard.  The French decided to make the rejected produce appeal to the public.  They developed a campaign to promote the fruits and vegetables.  Special displays were developed and given their own space in the store to showcase them.  Free samples of  juices and  soups were given away to shoppers to prove that there was no difference in taste and quality.  Finally, the supermarket offered a 30% discount on the produce which was indicated separately on the sales slip.  Social media, magazines, newspapers, and special TV news spots promoted the sale of the ugly fruits and vegetables.  Amazingly, the store sold out in two days.  Due to its success other stores were encouraged to try the same strategies,  dramatically reducing the country’s agricultural waste.

I live in central California.  A huge portion of this nation’s produce comes from this area.   Supermarkets here practice attractive displays of perfect fruit and vegetables discarding tons of not so pretty produce.  Fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive making getting the daily recommended amount for good nutrition difficult.   Recent drought conditions, increased jobless rates, and rising prices makes affording fresh fruits and vegetables out of the reach of many families.  As a result, families resort to high calorie, low nutritional meals because they are cheap and filling yet contribute to the ever increasing obesity rate in this country.  Would it not benefit California, or even the nation for that matter, to follow the model that has helped the French reduce their produce waste? I strongly believe that if supermarkets made the “ugly” fruits and vegetables available at a reduced price, more families would try to prepare balanced nutritional meals reducing not only the embarrassing agricultural waste but help stop or reverse the trend of obesity in this country.

Beauty is only skin deep for beneath that ugly fruit and vegetable exterior lies good nutritional value and great taste.