Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam • Hacker News Board

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#161

Post by smnscu » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 12:26 PM UTC

jeswin wrote: post #12

feross wrote: post #3

> The "eat ugly fruit!" movement is classist as FUCK. You've got to have a debilitating level of ignorance to assume that if Whole Paycheck Market doesn't stock ugly fruit, it must be getting "wasted." It is possible to not know much about the agricultural industry without being "classist as fuck." There are an infinite number of things one can learn about and a finite amount of time. While the content is interesting…

I guess the author was upset that a great many people parroted the 'ugly fruits get disposed' line without doing any research. I might have mentioned it myself, because it was all over the news. I can understand why someone who works in the industry would find this frustrating - it's basically just fake news and the damage is real. A rebuttal would get nowhere near the press the sensationalist original story would ge…

It's similar to Equifax/Yahoo/any other careless/evil corporation paying for ads berating people for not using stronger passwords.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#162

Post by kristianc » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 12:36 PM UTC

feross wrote: post #3

> The "eat ugly fruit!" movement is classist as FUCK. You've got to have a debilitating level of ignorance to assume that if Whole Paycheck Market doesn't stock ugly fruit, it must be getting "wasted." It is possible to not know much about the agricultural industry without being "classist as fuck." There are an infinite number of things one can learn about and a finite amount of time. While the content is interesting…

> Are there advantages to this communication style that I'm missing?

Invoking an offended identity group is a necessary condition of getting something to fly on Twitter.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#163

Post by MistahKoala » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 12:51 PM UTC

majewsky wrote: post #158

philliphaydon wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've honestly never noticed things like that when at supermarkets, while living in Australia or Singapore. I'm gonna watch out now see if I notice any of these sort of things. Thanks.

In Germany, there is still a divide between regular "supermarkets" and "discounters". The latter focus on price at the expense of selection and customer service. Aldi defined the discount grocery segment in the 60s with their focus on vertical integration and cost savings. In the 90s, all Aldi stores notably used the same sort of ugly tiles for their floors and walls, probably because they got a bulk price on them an…

> The Aldi store next door just got a redesign and now looks confusingly welcoming

In the UK they seem to have taken store design up a notch, to the point that there's a discernible difference with the Lidl experience (along with now being a tad more expensive on equivalent products). I suspect it's an incremental differentiator in retaining the more affluent customers they captured over the past decade. Lidl, on the other hand, offers a more mixed experience: for the most part, they're still quite dowdy and utilitarian, although they have what seem like experimental stores that appear to be competing in affluent areas with an Aldi presence (larger, open layouts; brighter lighting; polished, natural floor tiles etc.). The kinds of customers I usually find at Lidl are notably absent.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#164

Post by alimbada » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 12:57 PM UTC

spiderfarmer wrote: post #157

aboutruby wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also oversized to compensate for the low price-per-kilogram

Supersizing produce for economic reasons is a myth. Oversized fruits and vegetables mostly exist because they were "missed" during the previous harvesting round. A cucumber that is ripe but isn't harvested because it was hiding behind some leaves, will be oversized the next day. Same goes for a lot of other produce. Farmers receive the highest price for produce that's the "right" size. Other sizes will be auctioned o…

> A cucumber that is ripe but isn't harvested because it was hiding behind some leaves, will be oversized the next day.

A year ago I would've shrugged this off as an exaggeration, but after my wife decided to grow cucumbers last summer I've seen first hand how fast those things grow.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#165

Post by mosselman » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 12:58 PM UTC

majewsky wrote: post #158

philliphaydon wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've honestly never noticed things like that when at supermarkets, while living in Australia or Singapore. I'm gonna watch out now see if I notice any of these sort of things. Thanks.

In Germany, there is still a divide between regular "supermarkets" and "discounters". The latter focus on price at the expense of selection and customer service. Aldi defined the discount grocery segment in the 60s with their focus on vertical integration and cost savings. In the 90s, all Aldi stores notably used the same sort of ugly tiles for their floors and walls, probably because they got a bulk price on them an…

I live near the border between the Netherlands and Germany and since German supermarkets are cheaper by a lot I go to Germany to buy groceries every now and then. The ALDI there has incredibly fast cashiers. And I mean REALLY fast: The only way to keep up with the cashier is almost to swipe everything in your cart with both hands, you have to as well, because there is only about 50-80cm of 'runway' after the scanning. There is some sort of docking bay for your cart right after that. So everything is designed for a speedy check-out. We once commented to the cashier that they are so incredibly fast and she said that it is due to the scanners they use, they can scan a product in almost any orientation so that she doesn't have to be very accurate or remember where the barcode is for every product.

Due to this incredible speed at check-out, the same number of employees can process a far larger number of customers than the super market in the Netherlands that I go to. Very smart.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#166

Post by rleigh » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 1:18 PM UTC

spiderfarmer wrote: post #157

aboutruby wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also oversized to compensate for the low price-per-kilogram

Supersizing produce for economic reasons is a myth. Oversized fruits and vegetables mostly exist because they were "missed" during the previous harvesting round. A cucumber that is ripe but isn't harvested because it was hiding behind some leaves, will be oversized the next day. Same goes for a lot of other produce. Farmers receive the highest price for produce that's the "right" size. Other sizes will be auctioned o…

A farm up the hill from where I live produces eggs from several thousand free-range chickens, and they sell them on site with a vending machine by the dozen. They also sell "catering" eggs in trays of 30, for under half the price of a dozen standard eggs. These are irregular shapes (too elongated for "large" egg boxes) and double-yolk eggs. All perfectly tasty and edible, but cosmetically unsaleable. I'm happy to take advantage of the opportunity to buy them!

At the same time, it's also good to know that there's no wastage here. All the non-standard produce goes into cakes, quiches and other commercial products where the appearance isn't noticeable.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#167

Post by tobyhinloopen » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 1:29 PM UTC

Let’s write an article about fruits and veggies, about 1000 words long (didn’t count), and split it in short strings of max 280 characters.

Twitter is weird.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#168

Post by dkarl » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 1:32 PM UTC

feross wrote: post #3

> The "eat ugly fruit!" movement is classist as FUCK. You've got to have a debilitating level of ignorance to assume that if Whole Paycheck Market doesn't stock ugly fruit, it must be getting "wasted." It is possible to not know much about the agricultural industry without being "classist as fuck." There are an infinite number of things one can learn about and a finite amount of time. While the content is interesting…

I think what this quote is responding to is people disseminating some first world millennial's first uninformed guess about an issue as if were a revolution and a blessing to the world, instead of stopping to think that their precious intellectual virtues are not limited to people of their class, education, and supposed intelligence.

The idea that our enlightened attitudes set us apart from the rest of unwashed humanity is our fake news -- the stuff we consume unreflectively because it flatters us and plays nicely with our prejudices. Presented in a neutral context, the idea that the agricultural industry was throwing away significant quantities of produce because of aesthetic flaws would meet a lot of skepticism. Presented in the context of you are special because you understand how wrong this practice is and special people like us can help save the world by fixing this problem the idea gets uncritically accepted and widely shared on social media.

Calling people "classist as fuck" is designed to startle and threaten exactly the people who tend to accept these narratives uncritically, and put them in a frame of mind to consider that they might be wrong. Whatever the truth of the issue is, we won't get there unless we stop seeing ourselves as the hero of the story.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#169

Post by vertex-four » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 1:33 PM UTC

feross wrote: post #3

> The "eat ugly fruit!" movement is classist as FUCK. You've got to have a debilitating level of ignorance to assume that if Whole Paycheck Market doesn't stock ugly fruit, it must be getting "wasted." It is possible to not know much about the agricultural industry without being "classist as fuck." There are an infinite number of things one can learn about and a finite amount of time. While the content is interesting…

A behaviour can be classist, whether there is intent or not.

Similarly, some hiring practices wind up preferring men over women or vice versa, and are thus sexist. Whether that was the intent or not, the outcome is the same.

Re: Most “ugly” produce gets turned into soups, sauces, salsa, jam

#170

Post by hopler » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 1:54 PM UTC

ginko wrote: post #73

travisjungroth wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never done this, and I gently suggest you stop. Do you really need those extra few days of milk expiration? If the milk with the soonest expiration date was the only one available, would you buy it or just walk out without milk? A good rule to avoid tragedy of the commons situations is to think “what if everyone did as I do?”. This is a pretty classic example here.

>Do you really need those extra few days of milk expiration? The only thing I use milk for is in my morning coffee. I usually buy half liter cartons and even then I often end up with the milk going bad before I'm through with it. So yeah, I do.

Why not buy creamer packets?