"The demand for ‘perfect’ fruit and veg means much is discarded, damaging the climate and leaving people hungry" I mean, you can make a case for damaging the environment, but the thrown away food is hardly the reason people are hungry. We clearly don't have a shortage problem.
Wow. I started growing my own vegetables a few years ago, and of course, I eat everything that I can successfully produce. However, I'm always struck by how much different my own tomatoes (for example) look than the ones that I can buy at the grocery store - mine are usually smaller, and cracked in a couple of places, but still perfectly edible. It made me wonder what "professional" farmers do with similar produce - I always assumed that they sold it to companies that made tomato sauce or something and sold the better ones to consumers. I never thought they'd throw away perfectly good vegetables.