Ugly food: equally good for you, much healthier for the planet

I know, I promised a monthly newsletter and my last one was hardly one week ago...but I thought that the Climate pact after COP 21 being still warm I needed to share one call to action at the United Nations climate conference that is particularly sexy to me: LET'S EAT UGLY!

There is a growing international movement to end food waste by eating ugly produce: if part of 20% of the world's food, deemed too visually unappealing each year to reach the consumers, could be sell and be consumed estimates say we could eliminate 1 billion tons of carbon emissions a year and save 210 millions of food! Isn't that huge?

Apparently as much as 40% of produce goes uneaten because it doesn't meet retailers' strict cosmetic standards.

About 50% of all wasted food happens at the farm and in transfer before the food even reaches the distributors' stores and our plates.

Approximately 10% of human made greenhouse gas emissions come from producing, transporting, storing and preparing food that is never eaten.

If we planted trees on the land we use to grow food we waste, we could theoretically offset around 50% of the world's human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

The www.EndFoodWaste.org and www.lesGueulescassées.org campaigns have secured agreements with supermarkets in several countries and are working hard trying to convince others. Intermarché and Auchan in France and Delhaize in Belgium have apparently started to sell uglies: have you seen them?

Buying directly from the producer (and telling him you have no problem with the wonkies); growing your own; storing your food conveniently (well wrapped, air tight, vacuum...); composing with the fresh and seasonal food you already bought instead of following complicated recipes that call for ingredients you don't have; and not throwing your produce too early (prepare a all in one soup at the end of the week with all the little uglies left in your fridge); giving the uglies to your pets (instead of buying croquettes); are ways in which you can individually have and impact on the LET'S EAT UGLY revolution.