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.
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
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
