Whole Foods to start selling ‘mperfect’ fruits and vegetables > Why we should stop being so shallow towards our food’s appearance Elliot Chan Opinions Editor irst it was organics, now Whole Foods is aiming to make the buying and eating of “imperfect” fruits and vegetable as mainstream as drinking kombucha. Approximately 20-40 per cent of all fruits and vegetables end up in the trash. According to Environmental Protection Agency, US consumers wasted 35 million pounds of food in 2012. There are a number of reasons why such a large quantity of food ends up in the garbage, and including the fact that supermarkets have a high standard for the produce they sell. So, like a model for a talent agent, the tomato in your supermarket must also go through an appearance assessment. Now whether this experiment is going to work for Whole Foods and a number of other forward-thinking grocers is still up in the air. Consumers, especially consumers in developed countries, are quite fickle about what they buy. We work hard for our money, so why would we buy something of lower quality when we can have the better one for the same price? Still, there is something heartwarming about finding a good home for these rejected fruits and vegetables. Like an orphanage for food, it’s good to know that Whole Foods is doing its part to change the superficial ideal that is ultimately harming our society. Buying “ugly” food is not a novelty, though. It’s not a freak show, it’s not for a one-time entertainment, it’s something we need to make habitual. That is where the challenge will be. We must remember that in the end, it all just ends in the same place. Why does it matter how good an avocado looks before you mash it up into guacamole? Why does it matter how a carrot looks before you toss it in a stew? Sure, some fruit and vegetables—those you set ona platter for a house party, for example—need to look somewhat desirable, but in Women are people > Until women are treated like people, it’s evident that women are not seen as people Rebecca Peterson Staff Writer L should be obvious. Women are people. This is hardly a controversial school of thought; at least, it hasn’t been since 1929 in Canada, legally. The letter of the law, however, does nothing to combat social consciousness, and in that respect, women are still widely not thought of as people. This might seem like an extreme statement. However, the widespread treatment of women is telling. Let me provide some examples: Last week while at work, a man on the street took issue with the fact that I didn’t want to talk to him. He followed me for a block to my workplace, where I managed to slip inside a building to get away from him. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw that two of my coworkers had to physically bar the man from coming in after me, and still he pushed to get past them, reaching for me over their shoulders. Creepy. And one incident certainly doesn’t prove a societal phenomenon. The problem is, however, it isn’t a case of “one incident.” In telling this story to other women in my life, the responses I’ve received have widely been along the lines of “yeah, something like that happened to me, once.” It’s not even a shocking story anymore—it’s practically expected that other women have similar experiences. It’s not the first time I’ve had my work disrupted because a man has felt entitled to my time and attention. Much of my work requires me to be standing in the public eye, either guarding things or keeping people from wandering into places where they shouldn't go. Just as you wouldn't go up toa security guard, block their view, and start asking them personal questions, you would think someone in my position would receive the same courtesy. I'm not. I’ve been trapped in my position, forced to find a polite way to tell someone that I don’t appreciate their attention or comments about my body, which sometimes inspires more wrath and ire than it’s worth. And again, when sharing these stories with other women, the response I seem to get most often is “yeah, that’s happened to me.” It’s been proven to me time the end, why does it matter? We are so shallow about fruit and vegetables, but when it comes to animals we are fine with them being unattractive. Beef, pork, and seafood are not as cute as the little potato, but many of us eat them all the same. As long as you can tell the difference between fresh and spoiled, it rarely matters how the ingredients look. In fact, I believe we should start eliminating the idea of and time again that even while wearing a safety vest and work clothes, there are men who look at me and don‘ see a person at work, but a target to be pursued. You don't follow a person for two blocks when they’ve expressed disinterest—you might do that to a cat, but not a human being. It’s normalized for women to be harassed and have their space invaded at every given opportunity; it is not normalized for men to undergo the same treatment. It’s frustrating, disheartening, and infuriating, and even in writing this I know that there are some who wont take my words seriously because I’m a woman. This, too, has been proven to me before. I was once at an event where a man was asking a group of young female feminists questions. The feminists tried to patiently explain their answers, only to get cut off before they could finish a sentence. Eventually, a young man wandered over and made the same points, which the first man listened to avidly. In an experiment at a university in the States, résumés were e-mailed out to faculty for consideration. The résumés disgusting food from our society altogether. Our diets consist of many environmentally damaging productions. Acres of forestland are dedicated to cattle. Animals that were once in abundance, like species of salmon, are now being carefully rationed for fear of causing a greater imbalance. Yet, there is one species in the animal kingdom the Western world still finds grotesque: insects. Like ugly fruits and vegetables, insects are often were all the same, but some were titled with a woman’s name while others had a man’s name. The résumés labeled as belonging to a man were viewed far more favourably than those belonging to a woman. Our gender comes before all else: our words, our actions, our opinions. No one is exempt from the assumptions made Image via thinkstock scorned for their pesky nature. We see them as many things, but nutritious is not one of them. However, many people in developing countries depend on them for survival daily. Pushing for ugly foods to be sold is a small step, but there is a long way to go to create a sustainable world. If that is the goal, we need to change our opinions about imperfect fruits and vegetables—and soon our opinion about all things edible. Image via thinkstock about women. I, too, find myself judging women differently from men, and it’s always disheartening to realize. Until we start seeing women as people, we will have to start using men as placeholders in our lines of thought. Think of it this way: if a man wrote this article, would you take the content more or less seriously?