Oddly shaped produce can make for a fun conversation. But most produce that doesn’t fit the public’s idea of normal ends up in a landfill. Some is never harvested at all.
Now some Triangle companies are trying to solve several issues with one delivery box.
Up to half of the fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S aren’t eaten, due to both appearance and demand. Growing, harvesting, shipping and selling food that will not be eaten costs us economic and environmental resources. Food in landfills releases methane, a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide. And 14.4 percent of North Carolinians are food insecure, meaning they aren’t always sure where their next meal is coming from.
It’s hard to blame any one party. Growers harvest food they can sell. Supermarkets stock food consumers will buy. Consumers buy what they know, and we expect perfectly round onions and proportional broccoli exactly when we want it.
Lisa Johnson, a senior research scholar at N.C. State University, estimates that 42 percent of vegetables grown in North Carolina are left unharvested, as a result of constraints outside the control of growers.
Courtney Bell became concerned about food waste in the Triangle as a student at Duke, where she learned about the different ways wasted produce is a drain on our environment and economy.
Bell spent the second half of her college career building Ungraded Produce, a company that buys unsold produce from farmers and distributors and sells it directly to consumers for a discount. Bell began in 2016, buying unsold produce from two farms and selling it directly to 15 customers, mostly fellow Duke students.
Ungraded Produce, which Bell now runs full time with the help of an operations manager, acquires ugly and excess produce from farms and distributors around the state. This gives farmers a reason to harvest unattractive or extra produce and rescues food that distributors or supermarkets would have thrown away.
Her team of around a dozen part-time employees inspects produce for quality but ignores aesthetic blemishes that might disqualify it for a distributor. Finally, they deliver cheaper produce directly to their customers’ doors. The delivery system, Bell said, makes her company especially important for people with mobility issues or those who don’t have access to transportation.
Bell estimates that Ungraded Produce has rescued about 139,000 pounds of produce in 2018. The company also donates a few pounds of produce for every box they sell, which Bell said adds up to another 64,000 pounds donated.