What is food and how is it part of a larger system? This is the question that we have been learning about all quarter long and what my action project group decided to explore through food waste. Before I took on this project food as waste was merely the cuisine that I was unable to finish at the dinner table. I had never really thought of food waste in a global perspective. This project has opened my eyes to the bigger picture of food waste and has taught me to really think about how the excess food in the United States has global impacts. When researching for our project and interviewing different food experts I found that Imperfect Produce embodied systems theory thinking the most. When interviewing them they talked about how 20% of healthy produce is thrown to waste either because it is deformed, or it does not meet the farmers visual food standards. This is a huge percentage of good food that is wasted just because it doesn’t look perfect. Imperfect produce also talked about how 41 million Americans struggle with food insecurity. This is why part of their mission has become to take the 20% of fresh produce that is wasted and to give it to those who need it the most. As of now they donate carts of food to homeless shelters around the United States. Their hope is to eventually go global with their project.
Redefining Beauty in Produce. Imperfect produce. Okland. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/imperfect-redefining-beauty-in-produce#/
I found that the mission of Imperfect produce related to systems theory in reducing waste in all parts of the system. The first was the farmers production and output. Farmers produce many different types of produce in order to feed the mouths and the demands of both our local and global populations, often times supply is much higher than demand and some of the less perfect looking produce is thrown out. The input synergy in which these farmers place into the system is much larger than the market need. This leads to the second part of systems theory the consumption or output. Those who can afford to consume take all the produce in which they can afford, often times people’s eyes are larger than their stomachs and this leads to individual house hold waste. This takes us to the third part of systems theory the entropy. Entropy is the food that is unused and invaluable to the systems environment. In the imperfect produce model this is both the waste that comes off our unfinished plates and the imperfect produce that is thrown out by farmers. The goal of imperfect produce and my action project is to spread awareness on the entropy of food and hopefully empower people to turn it into an output. Eventually the goal is to balance the larger system that is food.
Rowlands, Lewis, and Luke Pryor. “Introduction to Systems Theory .” Season Youtube.
Hi Amanda! Thanks for sharing a piece of what you learned through your own action project and for being vulnerable about not really knowing the consequences of food waste. The fact that your team interviewed Imperfect Produce caught my attention because I’ve noticed this company become really popular in the media and even among some of my friends. I haven’t done much research on (lowercase) imperfect produce, but I remember growing up and not understanding why people were so turned off by less visually attractive produce.
Anyway, I really appreciate that your main goal was simply to create awareness. Even though I had wished for a long time that something like Imperfect Produce existed, when I actually heard about it, I found myself distrusting the purity of their motives and methods. The kinds of cities they deliver to and their ability to be so present in media is ironic to me considering the communities who would actually most benefit from their “mission,” but your team’s mission towards awareness reminds me that that is an extremely critical step in facilitating transformation of any system. A company cannot really have an absolutely perfectly motivated internal system when it itself is part of a much grander system.