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“Ugly Fruit” Does Beautiful Job

Isabel Soares in Lisbon is making a push to get perfectly good Ugly Fruit to mouths that need them, avoiding terrible waste.

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Meet Fruta Feia or “Ugly Fruit”. Started by Isabel Soares in Lisbon, Spain, Ugly Fruit is a cooperative that collects produce which fall short of the European Union high-standard of marketable food.

Ugly Fruit in Action

The cooperative buys the unwanted produce directly from the farmers, albeit at a lower price than the supermarkets they supply, and then brings it to the distribution centers. 

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Once at the centers, members who pay an annual fee and then a flat rate for their weekly  “food crate” that volunteers pre- fill with their “ugly food” harvest.

Though farmers are selling their produce to Ugly fruit at a reduced cost, many are happy that perfectly good food that doesn’t meet the EU or supermarket ideal is not going to waste. 

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Avoiding Waste

Consumers are glad to have produce at an affordable cost. It’s a win-win and exactly what Ugly Fruit’s founder hoped to accomplish, particularly the stemming of food waste.

Write to Kristen E. Strubberg at kstrubberg@tgnreview.com

Read more at The New York Times and at Fruta Feia website

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Kristen E. Strubberg is the Editor-in-Chief for TGNR. Kristen founded TGNR in 2013 - seeking to create a high quality platform for original, eclectic and substantive positive news journalism by attracting expert contributors in many varying subjects. Kristen also works as a clinical medical researcher in Cardiology, with an original background in Neuroscience. Her passion for science has translated to her science-fiction specialization, with her highly adept published insights into the best of sci-fi’s popular culture. Kristen has served as TGNR’s Editor-in-Chief since 2013.

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