Ugly vegetables need love too
About the episode
Food waste is a major environmental challenge. If food waste was a country, it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gasses after the United States and China. In the Nordics alone, we throw away more than 3 million tonnes of food a year. And yet one third of all fruit and vegetables are tossed away before they even reach the shop shelves, deemed too ugly, bumpy, or scarred for a consumer to love.
We take a closer look at the beauty standards at play the food industry and find out: Can embracing ugly vegetables cut greenhouse gas emissions? What do curly carrots and the Game of Thrones have in common? And why is the market for misfit vegetables suddenly taking off in Norway and China?
"Did you know that approximately 1/3 of all fruit and vegetables grown worldwide are tossed away before they even reach the consumer?"
– Afton Halloran
This podcast episode features the following speakers
Afton Halloran (Canada/Denmark)
Host of the Nordic Talks podcast. As an independent consultant and a transdisciplinary scientist, Dr. Afton Halloran has worked on sustainable development issues with organizations such as the World Bank, World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Sustainable Cities International. Afton is also an External Consultant to the Nordic Council of Ministers and a researcher at the University of Copenhagen. Originally from Canada, Afton has lived and worked in Norway, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Japan and Thailand. She currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Erik Vold (Norway)
Organizational and business development project leader at MatVett. Matvett is a non-profit corporation owned by the food industry in Norway, that aims to prevent and reduce unnecessary food waste by working with the food value chain and the government while sharing information with media and consumers to raise awareness.
Fred Yang (China)
Founding director of the Urban-Rural Bridge International Consultancy and Founder and Board Chairman of the Dingjia Rural Community Development Co-op. Fred is a farming advocate working to reduce food waste by helping farmers plan their production and to grow crops in natural settings without chemicals.