(energetic acoustic music)
- Across the whole foods system,
20% of fruits and vegetables that are grown
never make it to a human mouth.
Food waste is a complex problem, some of it is
because of the really tight aesthetic standards
of the grocery stores, need to be perfectly round,
the same size, the same color.
My name is Ben Chesler, and I'm one of the co-founders
of Imperfect Foods.
(groovy acoustic music)
Imperfect Foods is a grocery delivery service
that takes produce and groceries
that would normally go to waste and delivers them
to your door for 30% less than the grocery store.
We started this because
we noticed there was an environmental need,
and there was food going to waste.
If food waste were a country, it would actually be
the third largest emitter of green house gases,
and then there's all of the resources, all the water,
all the labor, that goes to waste.
We know the more people we reach,
the bigger impact we're able to have on the environment.
We wanted to be close to the farmers
and close to the source,
and over half of the produce consumed in the US
is grown in California, and San Francisco it was.
We came out here with basically a forklift, a warehouse,
and the shirts on our backs.
The way we work with farms,
we're here to help them reduce waste,
so every week, farms basically send us a list
of the fruits and vegetables that they can't sell,
and we're putting together a complete menu.
When you talk to the farmers you really understand
these fruits and vegetables are kind of their children
and they put so much care and love into growing them,
and they have so much pride in their craft.
(rhythmic acoustic guitar music)
- I love farming because I like the challenge,
I like always going up against Mother Nature.
Lakeside Organic Gardens, we farm over 3,000 acres,
we grow over 52 different types of vegetables,
cilantro, parsley, broccoli, cauliflower, parsnips,
rutabegas, turnips, lettuces all types,
romaine, green leaf, red leaf, iceberg, chard.
We consider ourselves a one stop shop
for organic vegetables.
We're in a red cabbage field where it's just been harvested.
Here on my left, I have a Lake Side regular box,
and to my right I have the Imperfect box.
All of them are uniform standard, pretty.
This is just exactly the same, same field, same deal,
just a little bit smaller.
Ideally, for any farmer in this world,
the perfect scenario is harvest every piece
of produce that's out in the field.
Delicious.
Before we teamed up with Imperfect Foods,
you'd have quite a bit of product left out in the fields.
Now we have an outlet for those vegetables
that aren't as pretty, but they taste just the same
as anything else.
Like they say it, "Don't judge a book by its cover,"
same with vegetables, you know?
If they're a little bit off,
don't knock it till you try it.
(somber banjo music)
- We're here in the Imperfect Foods warehouse
in San Francisco, and so this is where all the produce,
the groceries, the meat, the dairy, everything,
comes in from the farms, so let's go take a look
at some of the product.
Why would these mandarins go to Imperfect,
not a grocery store, and you can see some of this, like,
external scarring, roughness of the outside
or discoloration, little bit of peeling.
The grocery stores really don't want them,
and they would normally go to waste on the farm.
About a year ago we expanded beyond produce,
because we noticed that there was food going to waste
across the whole food system.
It's really well aligned that every box of produce
and groceries we sell helps us fight climate change
and do some good for the environment.
One of the main things that drives us to be better
and keep pushing is knowing that our work is helping
to leave the planet in a better place
than we found it for our children.
Now we're headed to Food Shift,
which is one of our community partners in the Bay Area.
So sometimes when we have product that we can't sell,
we want it to still find a home
so we donate to organizations like Food Shift.
- We are a combination of food recovery organization
and a social enterprise kitchen.
We educate folks who would otherwise
face high barrier to entry for employment,
and we hire them for our own enterprise,
catering and distribution of produced meals.
I want everybody to be mindful and be kind to each other,
and food is a great way to do that,
'cause when we break our proverbial bread together,
I think we're closer, we think about our sameness,
we solve things together, we put aside our differences,
or we even embrace our differences.
What a privilege that we get to eat,
and what a privilege that we get to cook.
- It's amazing that food is really so central
to people's identity, and it can really serve
as a force to bring people together.
It's also one of the biggest issues
affecting climate change,
and in health, and nutrition, obesity.
So it is really crazy how this small seed
turns into a piece of fruit or vegetable
and then basically can have so many positive effects
on the world.
(happy synth music)
(whooshing)
(creaking)