last bite

Don't Hate Us Because We're Different

Photography By | April 01, 2015
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Photo: Bill Squire, Verde Farm

Jordan Figueiredo, who calls himself a food waste geek, tweets images of gnarly roots and voluptuous peppers with humorous hashtags and saucy puns on @UglyFruitAndVeg and, in return, gets pix of provocative produce.

Almost as cute as kittens, his international social media campaign raises awareness and action about how much produce goes to waste in the U.S. because ... well, it looks different and doesn’t meet the cosmetic standards of major grocery stores.

His efforts have garnered online support from the likes of Jamie Oliver, Michael Pollan and Alice Waters.

Nosy Eggplant
Dancing Daikon
Photo 1: Nosy Eggplant
Photo 2: Dancing Daikon
Plump-Lipped Pepper
Wise Old Tomato
Photo 1: Plump-Lipped Pepper
Photo 2: Wise Old Tomato

Behind the misshapen gallery, there’s a serious message. “Food waste is really the socio-environmental challenge of our time when you consider how much we waste and how deeply that impacts water, energy, resource, climate and hunger,” says Figueiredo.

The Pepper Twins
The Pepper Twins

What can you do? Ask your favorite large grocers to stop wasting so much produce and stock ugly fruits and vegetables: UglyFruitAndVeg.org.

Above, quirky South Florida veggies photographed by Marian Wertalka of RedlandRambles.com