Episode Summary:  This short segment is taken from a previous episode in which we discussed why eating ‘imperfect’ fruits and vegetables can help reduce carbon emissions  

Jenn and Linda came together to talk about the variety of shapes and sizes that food products come in and how people tend to choose more aesthetically pleasing food.  

Ugly food is just as good but is being wasted, sometimes before it even reaches the supermarket shelves.

For more information on the project, and to order your copy of the Carbon Almanac, visit thecarbonalmanac.org

Listen to the full episode: Compostable Jeans and Ugly Food (the Good, the Bad and the Ugly)

For more information on the project and to order your copy of the Carbon Almanac, visit thecarbonalmanac.org

Want to join in the conversation?

Visit thecarbonalmanac.org/podcasts and send us a voice message on this episode or any other climate-related ideas and perspectives.

Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!

You can find out more on pages 201, 76 and 116 of the Carbon Almanac and on the website you can tap the footnotes link and type in 031, 022 and 598.

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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Jenn Swanson and Linda McLachlan

From Langley in British Columbia, Canada, Jenn is a Minister, Coach, Writer and Community Connector, helping people help themselves.  

Linda McLachlan is based in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a professional Coach, a writer and a Podcaster.  Her podcast is The Arena, Living a Courageous Life.

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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.

Hi, I'm Linda.

Hi, I'm Jen.

Hey Linda.

I have a question.

What do you think about ugly food?

Ooh, ugly food.

You mean the stuff at the back of my fridge?

No.

I actually mean when you're in the grocery store or the market or wherever

you are, and you're trying to choose that perfect yam or that perfect.

I don't know, piece of broccoli or whatever it is that you like to eat.

And how long do you take to pick through it?

Hmm.

It's a good question.

If a carrot has two legs, as opposed to the typical one or a turnip is

got a little sort of bump on it.

I don't worry.

I guess I just look for things that I haven't been bouncing

around in a truck for too long.

do you know that there is a whole.

Organizational system that has been built up around trying to save ugly

food because companies waste so much food because we are so used to

perfection mm-hmm . And because we are so used to having that perfect shaped,

whatever, or unblemished, whatever, a lot of the stores don't even put out

the ugly food and it gets thrown out.

When you think of the carbon that it takes to get the stuff.

To us in the first place.

And then a lot of it is just dumped and then there are people hungry.

It is, it doesn't make any sense, does it?

No.

And I think I saw a, there was a market in France, somewhere where they were

specifically promoting the ugly fruit or ugly vegetables and people were looking

at it going, yeah, that makes total sense.

And, and it was actually really success.

Yeah.

And I heard about a, some, an organization.

I don't remember the name of it, but that it's like the boxes that you can order

where all the food, like the community supported agriculture, where you get the

box every week, but you can get a box of ugly food and pay a little bit less

for it, which is one way to keep it out of the landfill and to feed more people.

There are also all sorts of volunteer organizations that are going around

and saving this food and then taking it to places where they can cook it

up and turn it into things to, to feed people, which I think is so much better.

I can't imagine how much they're throwing out and what a waste that is

by the time you've driven it somewhere.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So I wonder what we can do about this issue.

about not having people throw it out.

And I wonder what we can do individually.

I wonder if it's advocating directly to the local.

Grocery stores and saying, is there a way for you to create an area to allow

us to in the same way that you see in some grocery stores where they have the

stuff that's about to go off and they, unfortunately they wrap it in plastic,

but to actually do a promotion and make it an appealing thing to consumers.

Because I, we just forget about this stuff.

It's in.

We just don't see the option to say, look, this carrot with

two legs is just as tasty.

I get two for one with this ugly carrot, as opposed to having them to

all be perfect and having had carrots in my own garden, I know that, you

know, it's a thing and never stopped me for eating it from my own garden.

So why would it stop me from buying it in a.

Sometimes they're funny.

They're funny looking when they come out and it's more interesting

and amusing, I think too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I wonder if we can ask people to think about why are we striving so much for the

perfect and how can we put that aside and just use things so they don't get wasted?

Mm-hmm I wonder if we can ask people to think about that

the next time they're at the.

Great.

Definitely.

Thanks for talking about this.

I think I'm gonna make some yam fries for lunch.

How about you?

Yeah, I know.

Hi, I'm Rob from Birmingham in the UK.

I recently listened to the carbon sessions podcast on leaf blowers and

was staggered by the carbon footprint.

The petrol driven variety.

Cause each year as autumn arrives, I see people on our street blowing

leaves off their properties and either into the street where cars fly through

them, scattering them ever further away, or sometimes they're blown onto

the next door neighbor's property.

Only for them to get their leave blower out and blow them back.

Some people blow them into big piles and bag them up to be taken away.

Others, blow them into big piles and have their dog jump

into them while being videoed.

Apart from that idea, it all seems like a lot of pointless work.

There must be an average for the carbon cost for each relief to be

blown back and forth and taken away.

We have a lot of DEC deciduous trees around our house.

So there is a yearly fall of leaves.

I usually wait just until there's a dry patch during winter, and then mow them off

the lawn and tip them into our borders.

And they just mulch down.

I've done it for 20 years and haven't had the need to use a leaf blower, let

alone buy one and fill it with petrol.

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