How an imperfect swirl could put a lid on hunger
By Cody Larocque, Alternative Channel's Youth Contributor
This week I stumbled upon a small store in an obscure part of Montreal which, sells the seconds from bread companies at a reduced price, which are discarded just because they don’t meet their quality control’s magic eye standards.
Though there is nothing wrong with these products. They are both perfectly edible and just the same as the “standard” product except that they have tiny deficiencies. I looked around at the products as I walked up and down the aisles. I stopped at a pack of twelve hamburger buns and I didn’t notice anything wrong with them. So, I asked the clerk what was wrong, he came over and told me: « It’s cause it has two black sesame seeds».
What? For two sesame seeds this was chucked? «Yep» he said flatly. As I continued to pace up and down the store, I kept noticing that the bread was only slightly different than the mainstream supermarkets but it was bagged in the same bags. I picked up one that had its line to the right when it was supposed to be dead center. First, I laughed then I got disappointed.
The disappointment stuck with me all week. How can it be that we toss so much food away? There is an easy answer for that, we have too much. We’re used to the fact that our bread has all dark poppy seeds or that it has a line down the middle instead of the side. If they can fill a small 4 aisle store with just bread, imagine all the rest of the food that is tossed away just because it is not the right shade or consistency? The grain that is just wasted because of slight superficial flaws is appalling. Whether it looks like that loaf or this loaf it’s still bread, and still good for consumption.
Let’s imagine if the companies sold their products no matter what they looked like, whether the slices where crooked or that the loaf was darker than others. And took the grain that they did not use for remaking the lost units, and instead sent it to countries that needed the grain more than we do? Though it would not totally solve all the food issues in the world it could possibly put a dent into it. Another thing is that companies would save money. Yes that’s right; they would save money because they would no longer need to remake batches or units to replace so called “lost” ones.
Also, I don’t think many consumers would mind, after all, bread is bread. Think about it, if a company was to wrap it up in jargon like this :«Dear customer, the loaf in your hand, as you may have noticed, has slight imperfections, they are not harmful. We have decided to stop casting off our imperfect products and sell them instead to you; with all the grain which is being saved we intend to send it to less fortunate countries so they may benefit from our prosperity». Sales might even skyrocket; in fact some people pay a premium just to get “artisanal bread”. People want to feel like they are doing a good thing, even if it is for buying a loaf of bread.
We need to not only look at sustainable ways of farming and growing produce but also at responsible forms of production and, finally, consumption to change the way we look at how we survive. If we don’t, we’ll have more problems than just the simple fact that our bread is not sliced perfectly.
Posted by on 12/16 at 11:23 AM
