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Coming soon: The CSA box full of ugly fruits and vegetables

Central California fruits and vegetables are found in grocery stores across the nation. But what happens to produce that doesn’t make it to the market?

Ron Clark is on the hunt for what he calls "ugly produce." “It may be too large, too small, slightly off color; it could have a little bit of scarring caused by perhaps rain, hail, wind,” he says. “It’s just as good as what you'[re paying twice for at the store.”

Like people, fruits and vegetables grow in all shapes and sizes, but because of food beauty standards over six billion pounds of produce is wasted on farms every year. Clark is with the Oakland-based startup Imperfect, with the goal of bringing unsightly but tasty produce into American homes.  The group defines food waste as food that’s grown or raised for human consumption but used for other purposes.

In a past life, Clark used to work with food banks. Now he’s scouring California to make deals with farmers to purchase the produce that growers have to throw away because of cosmetic imperfections.

"Ugly food" source

Peter Mesias farms just outside Orosi in Tulare County. Right now he’s harvesting zucchini, cucumbers and yellow squash. A hailstorm a few weeks back nicked the skin of his fleshy vegetables so badly that much of his produce is unsellable for top dollar prices. Standing in front of conveyor belt dropping off funny-looking zucchini into a growing pile, Mesias points out vegetables with obvious hail damage.

Of a zucchini full of nickel-sized scars, Mesias says, “This was probably just an inch big at the time. Just a little scratch grows.”

Luckily, peddlers like Clark can purchase his scarred veggies for a fraction of the price and repurpose them for farmers markets, fruit stands or other uses. Clark wants the disfigured vegetables for Imperfect’s future home delivery food box service that launches in August. So he made a deal with Mesias to start getting fruit from him weekly, beginning in late summer.

How the program works

This is how the food box program could work: Every day, trucks will pick up the bruised produce at packing sheds throughout California. After simple sorting, the Imperfect team will divide the fruit and vegetables into boxes.  Meanwhile, people sign up for a subscription and pay $12 for a food box online or over the phone. The boxes will then be hand-delivered to their doorsteps.

Imperfect hopes to become a pioneer in breaking down food barriers. As Ron Clark says, “I think more and more and people are interested in solving the food waste crisis, but I think our method of going about it is pretty revolutionary.”

Imperfect wants to have a diverse array of produce in the boxes from around the state, but lots of the elements may come from Central California, including plums and other stone fruit from Exeter packer Chris Tantau.

“I say all my [produce] are beautiful -- we grow them all and they are beautiful,” Tantau says.  “But if you get a hail mark or things like that, when we go to the supermarket we pick through them till we find the good ones.”

Because of the mentality towards only buying beautiful food, Tantau says the Imperfect concept is a both a lifesaver and a moneymaker. With the program, he’ll turn a small profit on the blemished fruit.

Tantau has so much produce that doesn’t meet American food ideals that 40,000 pounds a week is trucked off to feed cattle or to food banks.  He says "ugly fruit" is often tastier than what people buy in grocery stores.

Tantau says his fruit packing company, Venida, is a perfect fit for Imperfect.  Clark says that by linking with farmers on this "ugly food" project, Imperfect hopes to slowly turn the tide on how much food the United States wastes.

“Imperfect is all about changing that paradigm,” he said. “We want the American consumer to sort of relearn their habits that have been picked up over the years through marketing of picking up the most beautiful produce and realizing, in nature, a lot of it doesn’t grow that way.”

The home delivery Imperfect box begins in August with a focus on Oakland and Berkeley. The group is also launching an ugly food partnership with the grocery chain Raley’s in July.

This story originally aired on Valley Public Radio in May 2015.

Crosscurrents