How direct marketing can save the world, or atleast clean up our food system....don't you love good news?
Last week, the New York Times ran an article about a new
company in Lisbon that is increasing the amount of affordable, fresh, produce
available to the community, while decreasing food waste. Fruta Feia, or “Ugly
Fruit”, is a produce distribution company, modeled after the traditional CSA
structure. In 2013, Isabel Soares
started the cooperative that buys “ugly” produce from farmers who would
otherwise have to discard it due to unreasonably high aesthetic standards in
the retail industry.
Soares and her
team of volunteers are on a mission, well, many missions actually. The work
they do is revolutionizing how people relate to food in a social,
environmental, and political context. In addition to industry standards, the European Commission
sets strict requirements about produce entering the retail market. The
assumption is that the quality of the produce can be assessed based on cosmetic
factors- but the more than 400 satisfied customers of Fruta Feia disprove that
assumption. Soares states that her goal is “to break the dictatorship of
aesthetics, because it has really helped increase food wastage.”
There are currently only three paid employees at Fruta Feia,
with many more volunteers, but their hard work is paying off. There is a
waiting list of over 1,000 people waiting for their produce share. 21 tons of
food have been saved from going to waste, and were re-routed to consumers. As
for the EU Commission, in June of 2014 they will publish a new set of
recommendations concerning food labeling, in an effort to reduce waste.
It’s nice to hear news with win-win-win outcomes: consumers
receiving fresh, affordable food, farmers making a profit on what would
otherwise go to waste, and a small cooperative pulling together to help repair
broken links in the food system. Read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/world/europe/tempting-europe-with-ugly-fruit.html?ref=world&_r=3
