Packaging grows veggies

Grow vegetables. Harvest vegetables. Clean, sort and pack vegetables in consumer-sized portions. Wrap in packaging and label vegetables. But Sustainability! Reduce packaging: check. Re-use packaging: check. Recycle packaging: check. UK-based Bachelor-of-Arts student Ben Huttly came up with a method to 3R the packaging of veggies: a biodegradable tag afixed with biodegradable twine. Not that I’m convinced by the biodegradable packaging on the market but this one is at least different as follows: After use you take the tag and plant it. Being full of veggie seeds it will grow into your next serving. Ben’s self-imposed brief was how to inspire people to start growing fruit & veggies. Yes, the critics will be saying, “But why should veggies be packaged at all?”, “Laser-etching (used to save on inks & dyes) needs energy too?” but guys, this is still a step better for all the packaged veggies that you do find in retail.

Aesthetically-challenged fruit & veg: Sustainability in your diet

The Austrians, the Swiss, the Dutch, the Brits, the Germans and quite a few others too are making a case for Edible Imperfection. The retailer REWE International has just launched its campaign “Wunderlinge” in Austria, starting with apples, carrots and potatoes that literally don’t make the grade. These local products are offered at a cheaper price and only as long as supply lasts.

The Austrian campaign was inspired by their Swiss neighbours: retailer coop launched Ünique – a sales pitch for fruit and veg with character, created  by nature’s moods. They also held a competition in which citizens could upload photos of their funny fruit & varied veg.

In the UK people sent in pics of their unusual veggies to the We Love Knobbly Veg gallery, part of the eponymous campaign run by the conservation charity National Trust and the magazine Delicious.

Berlin artist and professional photographer Uli Westphal has provided us with astounding visuals of botanical anomalies in his project Mutatoes and the amazing array of tomato cultivars in Lycopersicum. I hope he continues with this work!

And there is more in Berlin: Culinary Misfits – German catering duo Lea Brumsack and Tanja Krakowski call on us to Eat all of the Harvest! They are actively looking for organic farms to sell them not the good, not the bad, but definitely the ugly. Indeed, they are now supplying BioCompany, an organic supermarket chain, with vegetarian/vegan Misfit-Soups. Filmlet here and crowdfunding here.

Dutch initiative Kromkommer came about as a result of a dumpster diving adventure. It’s a Dutch campaign for Krom Komkommers & More (Kinky (actually: bent, curved, crooked) Cucumbers). Join the Krommunity.

Of course all of this has lots to do with current mega topic food waste. The price of consumer demand  – and trade grade legislation – for cosmetic perfection and uniformity is high, read up a bit e.g. here. Are you on a Stepford Diet? Do you hide ugly fruit and veg like Ashley Kinnad’s entry to the Design Bridge Student Competition (2012) in the pic below? Then take a Wonky Veg Pledge: vow to source non-conformist fruit & rebel vegetables for your diet, green up your shopping and show some love for the Despicable Me’s of the plant world.