_In this era of Food Insecurity, it's almost criminal that 13% of good fresh food is wasted!_
This farmer says he reluctantly throws away enough cauliflower to feed a province | CBC Radio
An estimated 13 per cent of fruits and vegetables grown in Canada go unharvested or are discarded, according to a federal government report. Many farmers say they can't afford to harvest, box and transport wasted produce to food-insecure Canadians for free.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/cauliflower-farm-canada-surplus-food-waste-food-insecure-1.6644601
@marathon0 Don't start with the 'criminal' thing. All the cost for food is prep and transport to the cities. A gold mine throws out a lot of gold, as well.
@hasmis
That's a rather strange statement. The waste is because the consumer is not educated enough to know that there is nothing wrong with a little off colour cauliflower and the retailer's wanting a uniform size. Therefore in this example, large and off-white cauliflower is plowed under. That's what we're talking about in this article.
@marathon0 He overgrows to feed the pipeline, to make sure. I object to the 'word inflation' of calling it criminal. I buy overripe bananas for cake, and c-grade apples at the orchard. I trim off the cauliflower spots, but cauliflower is the worst for keeping fresh. Far better to use cabbage.
@hasmis It's also a problem of the consumer being far removed from the farm, literally, and having never visited one . One of my granddaughter's won't eat any meat that looks like it's part of an animal <ie> chicken legs, wings, leg of lamb etc. She's never visited a farm or seen an abattoir. She is like most consumers, who don't know all the work farmers do to feed us!
People near to the earth know that off colour vegetables/fruit doesn't mean it's not good. Urbanites, not so much.
Cheers!