at this stage, it was more than just about cooking. i wanted to figure out the impact food has on the world around us, and search for new ideas about how food shapes our economies, environment, health and, ultimately, survival. it’s something we experience everyday, yet is facing a growing dilemma.

by 2050, the world population will stand at 9.7 billion. that’s a third more mouths to feed. the solution may seem to be a no-brainer — just raise the amount of food grown globally — a 70% increase to be exact. but it doesn’t happen this easily. studies have shown that there is only 11 percent of arable land left in the world, and that almost all land expansion would occur in developing countries, where most of the global demand for food will come from. these heightening pressures for food production, inequitable food distribution and an impending environmental crisis make for a multi-dimensional problem at our hands. and the clock is ticking.

this complex debacle is what drew me to the global food challenge. over the past year, i’ve taken a journey to explore these philosophies, and met people who strive to make a difference for food security in their community. i’ve learned many things along the way, and questioned the feasibility of that seemingly obvious solution mentioned above. if increasing food production is not a sustainable possibility, why don’t we look at the way it’s distributed world-wide? what if food waste is the real culprit for food inequality?

to tackle this issue, you have to look at the way we value food. with the amount of food that is thrown out each year, it’s easy to say that we do give the respect that it deserves. we let produce be ridiculed for its size and appearance; unattainable aesthetic standards for fruits and vegetables, food safety misguidance, and outright ambiguity on sell-by dates have created hysteria over a bruised apple. i believe that by changing perspectives on food, we can help solve this future enigma.

(sources: “how to feed the world 2050,” un-fao; “feeding 9 billion,” national geographic magazine)

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about the project

this is final piece in a six-part series. waste not wednesday is a community engagement project created by ayse muratoglu, a 2015-2016 emerging leader for food security for the land o’lakes global food challenge program. the yearlong program takes 10 college sophomores who will work with land o’lakes experts to explore issues of food security, and find ways to feed the world. to learn more about the global food challenge, join the conversation at http://foodchallenge.landolakesinc.com/

in a world full of monster-green juices, pricey juice cleanses, and upscale organic juiceries, it can be hard for cold-pressed juice to stand out from the rest of the crowd. especially you’re a misfit. 

misfit juicery is a d.c.-based, cold-pressed juice startup founded by recent georgetown graduates philip wong and ann yang. the two friends took an entrepreneurship class together, and after spending a summer in rwanda, returned with a vision to change the food system for the better. the concept is simple, yet ingenious — make juice, but with ugly produce. surplus fruits and vegetables bound for the landfill are repurposed into fresh, healthy beverages that are sourced locally. they gather up twisted carrots and dimpled apples to create delicious, aptly named concoctions such as offbeat and 24carrotgold.

their website claims that misfit “is not a juice company,” instead a socially conscious effort that is packing a punch against food waste. their main opponent is what misfit juice refers to as “produce prejudice,” or our obsession with perfect-10 fruits and vegetables. consumers, grocery stores, and other retailers are the culprits — their high standards of aesthetic value discriminate against produce that’s been bruised, blemished, or banged up. for some, it may seem ridiculous. we are literally judging food by its cover — color, shape, and size — like it’s some botanical beauty contest. but it’s in our nature. you may have heard the old adage that we “eat with our eyes,” and science has shown that this is largely true; the visual cortex composes a substantial portion of our brains, and visual stimuli can actually affect taste. the downside of this biology is that it leads to perfectly good produce ending up in the trash can.

misfit juicery is selling wholesale at 50 different locations in d.c., and was recently named one of “fifty+ under 50: #foodheroes that transformed dc’s food system.” “people are psyched about the brand, and i think we want to get our brand and message out to as many people as possible,” co-founder philip wong says. “at the same time, i really want misfit to be not only about the juice, but also about reimagining how people engage with food.”

although it’s drawn quite a following, co-founder philip wong believes that there’s still a long road ahead: “it helps that we’re getting a lot of attention around it, but with the scale of the issue, there’s a lot more to be done.” he cites further that households share the blame in the annual 70 billion pounds of discarded food, and that waste can come from a multitude of sources such as meat consumption. “there’s agricultural waste, food waste in the home, but also something like eating meat is super wasteful. you put so much water and energy into a cow and get 10 percent of the calories out of it. there’s waste all over the food system right now. in terms of what’s going into our food, we’ve still got a long way to go.”

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about the project

this is part four of a six-part series. waste not wednesday is a community engagement project created by ayse muratoglu, a 2015-2016 emerging leader for food security for the land o’lakes global food challenge program. the yearlong program takes 10 college sophomores who will work with land o’lakes experts to explore issues of food security, and find ways to feed the world. to learn more about the global food challenge, join the conversation at http://foodchallenge.landolakesinc.com/

i caught up with elizabeth bennett, founder of fruitcycle, a d.c.-based social enterprise serving up sustainable snacks in the form of apple chips and kale crisps. they not only satisfy late-afternoon cravings and pack a nutritional punch, but are also rooting on the fight against food waste in our nation’s capitol.

the apples and bunches of kale she uses as ingredients are “seconds,” or ugly produce that was once on the verge of being thrown away. fruitcycle is not only giving opportunities for blemished goods to be redirected into new products, but also has a key social-justice component for women empowerment. while it sources produce that would ultimately go to waste, fruitcycle provides jobs for women who have been formerly incarcerated, homeless or are otherwise disadvantaged.

where did the idea for fruitcycle begin?

it began with a trip to a peach orchard during the summer of 2013. i was astonished by the thousands of pounds of fruit that i saw on the ground in front of me going to waste. the peaches were healthy, presumably delicious, local and nutritious, and here it was going to waste while we had one in six americans who were hungry at the same time. those statistics put together is an absolute ridiculous paradox that we have so much food waste, throw out 40% of our food, while this many people go hungry. i thought that maybe there was a way to recover that fruit before it went to waste, and turn it into a shelf-stable product that would be a healthy to boot, and then also something that would become a job opportunity for women who needed them. these were women who may be formerly incarcerated, homeless or at risk of being hungry.

what are your thoughts on the paradox of food that we suffer as a nation?

i’m optimistic that people are starting to talk about it finally, but obviously the fact that food waste still exists is a travesty. we do waste so much food as a country at all levels of the food chain, particularly at the consumer level, where it’s more or less avoidable. i think that some of the other things that are causing food waste definitely need to be addressed from a more systemic approach. but yeah, it’s great that food waste is becoming an issue that more people are talking about, and that there are more organizations such as fruitcycle coming together to fight this and developing many solutions. hopefully things will change going forward.

what do you think of the potential for millennials to become aware of food waste and why should they get involved?

i think that they should definitely get involved, and honestly that’s where a lot of this push is coming from. i think that millennials are really interested in food and learning about where it’s coming from and how it’s produced, sort of the more hands-on approach, like learning to can ourselves. i think it’s only natural that millennials care about food waste. especially because food waste is becoming, as it should, the next environmental issue. food waste just has so many impacts, it’s not just the food that we’re wasting, it’s all of the inputs that went into that food, whether it’s the water, or the oil that was used to transport it from california to d.c., with many stops in between. or it’s the fact that if we’re putting food into the landfill, it’s contributing more methane gas. you know, there’s more food in landfills than almost anything else, so it’s creating all sorts of problems for us, really. so, yes, millennials should care about food waste, and i think they will or already do.

how has fruitcycle been received? have there been any challenges marketing your brand to people who may be unfamiliar with food waste?

not necessarily, because food waste has been getting so much attention, people think it’s really great and are supportive of the idea. i know that other people in this space have experienced some hesitation over the fact of people not really understanding why the produce was going to waste and thinking that maybe they were using, you know, rotting fruit or something, which obviously isn’t the case. i’ve never experienced that personally, but everyone that i have interacted with, whether i’m doing demos or at events, they love the mission and think it’s amazing. especially the tie-in, that we’re not just providing second chances for the produce, but also providing second chances for women and so people really respond positively to both of those things.

fruitcycle’s mission is “to do good – for its suppliers, its employees, its customers, its community, and its planet.” you spoke about providing not only second chances for the produce, but also for women who have been formerly incarcerated, homeless, or are otherwise disadvantaged. did this social-justice aspect of sustainability develop in tandem with fruitcycle?

it was simultaneous, i knew that i was going to combine both of those things when i had the idea. that came about because of the food paradox in the us, and the volunteer work that i had done with various different organizations in d.c., particularly d.c. central kitchen—i’m heavily inspired by them, and specifically work i had done there with a case manager who had himself been previously incarcerated. even though he was male, just the struggles that he faced trying to re-enter into our society, and turn his life around really resonated with me. i had worked with some women in organizations in the city and sort of just combined those two things.

i worked with two non-profits, the first was called together we bake, a training program based in alexandria, virginia for women who are formerly incarcerated, homeless or otherwise disadvantaged, and my first employee came to me through them. it’s an 8-week long baking-training program where women get their food handlers’ license, learn how to make cookies and granola, and stay in this program centered around empowerment and development. there’s classes on overcoming some of the issues that they face, they do yoga, and some other activities in addition to the production and business side of things. as a side note, as of jan. 1, fruitcycle is now a part of together we bake. the other nonprofit that i have worked with is n street village, a community of empowerment for homeless and low-income women.

when you were developing your product for fruitcycle, why did you steer towards snacks as opposed to juices or other beverages?

i had the idea, and it took a while for me to get to what the actual products were going to be. when i was first thinking about it, you know, i got the idea from a peach orchard, so i was thinking about peach products—peach chutney, because i had a really good peach chutney recipe, and frozen peach cobbler, because i also had a really good recipe for that. and then i started with apples partly because of timing, so the idea was in 2013, i didn’t actually launch until the fall of 2014, and at that point it was apple season. i was thinking about shrub, are you familiar with that?

no, i’ve never heard of that!

it’s basically a drinking vinegar, a historic, colonial-era way of preservation. it’s fruit, vinegar and sugar—i know it sounds revolting, but they’re primarily used as cocktail mixers or for mixing with soda water for an italian soda, so i made a bunch of shrub. i realized ultimately that it wasn’t the right product for me for a few reasons, one of which was from a consumer education standpoint, although there are now quite a few shrub companies in d.c., naturally! but then somehow i ended up at snacks. healthy snacking is really important to me, and with hunger, there’s a general correlation with obesity because of the quality of food that people are getting, and as someone who is concerned with health and nutrition, healthy snacks just made sense, especially given how snacking is so prevalent in our culture now. people are eating more snacks than they are meals, so it made sense from a business perspective as well as a personal mission. simultaneously i realized that i could dehydrate as a preservation method, and so, apple chips it was. it’s super healthy, i only mix the apples with cinnamon, we don’t add any sugar or preservatives or anything, and people are always really astonished by that because when they try them the natural sweetness of the apple comes out.

where do you see the future of fruitcycle going?

so we just merged with together we bake, effective jan. 1, and that’s been going really well. i’m so happy with how it turned out because now i have the opportunity to have a positive impact on the lives of more women with the training program. going forward, fruitcycle is very much tied to the future of together we bake now, and i think that there is a possibility of some new products down the line. together we bake makes granola, we make apple chips, why don’t we make a granola with apple chips in it, for example. last summer, also, i did a variety of jarred products sort of as an experiment. i wanted to preserve the bounty of summer fruit that was available, so i think that that’s another area where we can use some of those recipes.

more importantly than that, i think that ultimately down the road, we need our own facility. together we bake currently operates out of a church kitchen, so we need to eventually move into our own space that will enable us to increase our capacity thereby taking in more women as trainees and/or as employees from our graduates of the twb program. if we have a larger kitchen space, it helps spread our mission. and maybe down the line, it would be great to replicate this model in other cities.

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about the project

this is part three of a six-part series. waste not wednesday is a community engagement project created by ayse muratoglu, a 2015-2016 emerging leader for food security for the land o’lakes global food challenge program. the yearlong program takes 10 college sophomores who will work with land o’lakes experts to explore issues of food security, and find ways to feed the world. to learn more about the global food challenge, join the conversation at http://foodchallenge.landolakesinc.com/

one-third of all food produced each year is wasted before it can be eaten. sometimes food is wasted because people misunderstand expiration dates (fyi, those dates don’t mean anything), and other times it’s because the food is considered “ugly.” food beauty standards cause consumers and supermarkets to have unrealistic expectations when it comes to how fruit and vegetables look. the result? twenty percent of food produced is wasted because it’s considered “ugly.”

the ugly food challenge

(photo by natsuko mazany)

to spread awareness about this issue, spoon iu, oxfam club, and hutton honors college hosted the “ugly food challenge” at indiana university. the purpose of the event, which was composed of an interactive photography workshop and a discussion, was to prompt students to question food beauty standards and become advocates for eating ugly food instead of throwing it out.

(photo by grace hwang)

taking pictures of “ugly” fruit and vegetables is the first step in creating a culture that accepts misshapen and imperfect-looking produce. if people accept wonky produce as normal, it could create a positive domino effect where stores and food producers let ugly produce stay in the food system.

the produce featured in our photo workshop was donated by lucky’s market. instead of throwing away bruised produce, lucky’s market donates the food to local charities. unfortunately, many other grocery stores aren’t as charitable. instead of feeding hungry people, most ugly produce ends up in the trash.

(photo by grace hwang)

at the ugly food challenge, spoon photographers shared some tips and tricks for making the food look beautiful, and then the students were free to create their own arrangements.

(photo by kayleigh dance)

we had props available so photographers could get creative with textures and colors in their photos.

(photo by meredith ross)

this artichoke couldn’t be sold because it looked dried out. the orange pepper came in a package of mini-peppers, which was considered unsuitable for grocery store shelves because some of the peppers were slightly discolored.

(photo courtesy of joie li)

these blueberries had started to dry up and the pear’s skin wasn’t uniform enough to be sold.

(photo by meredith ross)

these blackberries were donated because they were a particular shade of purple that indicated that they would be going bad soon.

(photo courtesy of aamina khan)

social media is a powerful tool in “foodie” culture, so we encouraged participants to share their photos with @spoon_iu on instagram using #uglyfoodchallenge.

#spoontip: check out @uglyfruitandveg on instagram for daily ugly food photos and facts about food waste.

understanding food photography

(photo by natsuko mazany)

why are we so afraid of weirdly shaped, imperfect food? it’s because we are used to seeing professional “food” photos that are full of tricks, which often render the food inedible.

to prove how easy it is to manipulate food photos, we took this picture of pancakes.

(photo by natsuko mazany)

the only thing is, we stuffed the pancakes full of paper towels to bulk them up and mixed motor oil and syrup to create the “perfect” color and texture for the syrup. sadly, this is just one example of a professional food photography method that no one likes to talk about.

(photo courtesy of @left_over_food on instagram)

luckily, photographers like @left_over_food dedicate their careers to documenting what food looks like in real life. they prove that there is beauty in scraps and imperfection. just like having a positive body image (and recognizing photoshopped victoria secret models), we need to remember that the picture perfect food is unattainable.

(photo natsuko mazany)

the secret to taking beautiful food photography isn’t that you need beautiful produce to do it. natural light, creative angles and set-ups are what make a photo eye-catching.

how to embrace ugly food

(photo by sabrina dorow)

for ugly produce to be accepted, the first step is to increase its visibility. the ugly food challenge purposefully focused on food photography as a way to make the issue of food waste relevant to a social media-savvy student body. college kids love taking pictures of their food, so why not shift the focus to food that is in danger of being trashed?

you can use your purchasing power to support companies that promote ugly produce. the california-based company, imperfect, delivers ugly produce to your door, and the daily table supermarket stocks its shelves with produce rescued from farms. if you want to see how countries around the world are handling ugly produce, check out intermarché’s promotional campaign for ugly fruit and vegetables and asda’s “wonky veg box.”

to start making a difference on your campus or in your community, consider joining the food recovery network, which feeds people with food that otherwise would’ve been wasted. the ugly food challenge highlighted one aspect of food waste, but more importantly, it gave students a taste of how to use creativity and community-building events to promote positive change.

special thanks to food & wine magazine, oxfam club at iu, hutton honors college, anatolia, and lucky’s market.

— halley rose meslin and natsuko mazany

(editor’s note: this story originally was published on spoon university.)