So does Whole Foods crush the food before or after they ask you to donate money to help feed starving children?
And do they at least have to speak into the voice decoder and say, “I’m not giving anything to the hungry kids” before they run their trash compactor?
I have a love/hate relationship with NYC. Such an amazing place, I thrive for a few months at a time there, but could never live there permanently.
I hate that there is so much need and so much waste. I love seeing people able to forage such abundance from the waste stream. Dumpster diving for food is awesome.
Oh and Whole Foods…F*CK YOU!!! You intentionally prevent people from reclaiming your waste and yet spout your eco organic values. F’n hypocrites.
Does any Whole Foods even keep their trash outside? If they did, people would be complaining about that.
They really should be donating it though.
Edit: Oh, right, NYC. It’s been so long since I left I forgot it’s perfectly normal and legal there for businesses and apartment buildings to leave enormous piles of trash on the sidewalk for pickup. That’s a big culture shock whenever I go back to visit.
Try visiting during a garbage strike.
I lived there through garbage strikes. In August.
A like isn’t enough, I want to give you a Purple Heart.
For what it’s worth, when I worked at Kmart in high school, we had one of those lousy in-store Little Caesars, and every day they’d wheel back a pallet of all the unsold pizzas. The on-site cop and manager would supervise as we put them all in the trash compactor to make sure nobody took any. We were told that health regulations made the store responsible for any prepared food taken out of the trash or eaten off the loading dock. I thought it was bullshit.
Little Caesar’s? They were doing potential dumpster-divers a favor, really.
I met some Freegans. They’re a wild bunch. I was a overwhelmed by my over developed “ick” reflex. As long as people don’t get sick I don’t have a problem with it. I wonder what the scientists think? I’m sure the FDA is lurking around the corner.
That is the standard line everyone gives you, but I remember watching some show, and I can’t remember where, but it turns out - at least in that locality - there IS no law against giving away old food. They might fear a lawsuit after someone says they got sick, there is no protection against it. But there was no law against giving it away. (I know on occasion I will happen at a fast food place closing up and get a hella good deal on food. One time when I was job less I got a huge bucket of chick for $5 at KFC. Last like 4 days.)
But really, humans are their own worst enemy, at least in the first world, when it comes to produce. Have any of you all gardened? We grew up in the recession of the 80s and my dad had a massive garden. We ended up having two of them take up half the back yard. And then we took over this massive plot of the neighbor lady and grew corn several years.
One thing one will quickly realize is - wow- a lot of our food looks weird. We would get funky ass tomatoes and carrots and potatoes that you would never see in a store. Why? Because that is how food grows. Funky. The growers weed out the ugly stuff to be used for something else or even left to rot, while the pretty food gets to go to the grocery store.
But wait, we aren’t done sabotaging ourselves! Once there if the food has a perceived defect - even 100% cosmetic, or possibly a small bruise or nick, it is likely to get over looked over and over again. Even people on food stamps will pass it by. Poor guy.
Whats worse, there can be NOTHING WRONG with it and people STILL won’t buy it. If you have one bunch of food left sitting in an other wise empty box, people will just ASSUME something is wrong with it and pass it up all day. Add 4 or 5 friends around it, and then people will buy it.
I was watching Shark Tank and there was a company with a clever idea. They were making boxes of fresh food sent to people on a subscription service. They were taking the rejected “ugly” items directly from the farm and sending it to the consumer directly. The farmer makes some money and the people get fresh organic food, with possibly a few cosmetic defects. I thought it was a clever idea if they could make the logistics work. IIRC they also used a portion of the money to also send some of the food to local food charities.
Makes me think about all the corn that’s thrown out every year in the US due to corn smut, whereas south of the border, farmers celebrate if there’s fungus on their corn, because it can be sold for twice the price as huitlacoche.
My mom grew as much food as she could with really limited garden space - lots of tomatoes, peppers, garlic. A couple of dwarf fruit trees. Funky-looking stuff, sure, but that taste! Store tomatoes have zero taste compared to what she harvested.
I am not a tomato fan really. They are ok. But you’re right.
But apples… ugh. Red Delicious only get sold because they look nice. NO ONE EATS THEM. They are HORRIBLE apples. I remember getting them as a kid and was like - WHY. I didn’t know they made other apples, really. I am so glad now we have gala and fuji and pink ladies and a half dozen other kinds more easily found.
My spouse mistakenly grabbed a bag of red delicious at the store a couple of weeks ago (they were right next to the good apples, whoops!). They were disgusting. And the weird thing to me is that they were organic. Who wastes organic farming techniques on red delicious?
I always requested Yellow Delicious or Granny Smiths as a kid, which confused my mom, but I would happily eat a sour, flavorful apple over a cardboard-tasting, mealy Red Delicious any day.
That guy is a comedian?
I like the point of the video, but I never got near even a smile.
Fresh tomatoes, straight off the vine and still warm from the sun are easily as good as strawberries.
If not better!
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