<story><title>The ugly truth about the ugly produce movement</title><url>https://newfoodeconomy.org/imperfect-produce-ugly-food-waste-commodification-community-supported-agriculture/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sgift</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t get it. You could argue that the poor need food more than farmers need money. That same argument could be made to any business, though. Why are farmers more obligated to donate to the poor than anyone else?&lt;p&gt;One of the arguments for subsidies to farmers is that they are the &amp;quot;feeders of people&amp;quot;. Sounds to me like they want privileges, why not a few obligations for a change?</text></item><item><author>CivBase</author><text>&lt;i&gt;This produce used to be readily available to food banks but now that “ugly” and “imperfect” produce can turn a profit, they are less available to those in need.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;So the argument is as follows: Farmers were donating food to the poor because they couldn&amp;#x27;t sell it. Imperfect Produce figured out how to sell that food, so now farmers are selling it instead of donating it. This is bad because now poor people get less food.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t get it. You could argue that the poor need food more than farmers need money. That same argument could be made to any business, though. Why are farmers more obligated to donate to the poor than anyone else?&lt;p&gt;That is even assuming Imperfect Foods is negatively affecting these food banks. The New Food Economy seems to think so, but Imperfect Foods disagrees.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;help.imperfectproduce.com&amp;#x2F;hc&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;115004564574-Are-you-taking-produce-that-would-have-gone-to-food-banks-otherwise-Where-did-this-produce-go-before-Imperfect-started-&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;help.imperfectproduce.com&amp;#x2F;hc&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;11500456...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know who to believe, but I also don&amp;#x27;t think it matters. My takeaway is that the food bank model for donating to the poor is less viable now. We&amp;#x27;ll have to find a better model moving forward.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lotsofpulp</author><text>Instead of adding opacity to the system, I would rather they remove the subsidies instead.</text></comment>
<story><title>The ugly truth about the ugly produce movement</title><url>https://newfoodeconomy.org/imperfect-produce-ugly-food-waste-commodification-community-supported-agriculture/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sgift</author><text>&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t get it. You could argue that the poor need food more than farmers need money. That same argument could be made to any business, though. Why are farmers more obligated to donate to the poor than anyone else?&lt;p&gt;One of the arguments for subsidies to farmers is that they are the &amp;quot;feeders of people&amp;quot;. Sounds to me like they want privileges, why not a few obligations for a change?</text></item><item><author>CivBase</author><text>&lt;i&gt;This produce used to be readily available to food banks but now that “ugly” and “imperfect” produce can turn a profit, they are less available to those in need.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;So the argument is as follows: Farmers were donating food to the poor because they couldn&amp;#x27;t sell it. Imperfect Produce figured out how to sell that food, so now farmers are selling it instead of donating it. This is bad because now poor people get less food.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t get it. You could argue that the poor need food more than farmers need money. That same argument could be made to any business, though. Why are farmers more obligated to donate to the poor than anyone else?&lt;p&gt;That is even assuming Imperfect Foods is negatively affecting these food banks. The New Food Economy seems to think so, but Imperfect Foods disagrees.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;help.imperfectproduce.com&amp;#x2F;hc&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;115004564574-Are-you-taking-produce-that-would-have-gone-to-food-banks-otherwise-Where-did-this-produce-go-before-Imperfect-started-&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;help.imperfectproduce.com&amp;#x2F;hc&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;11500456...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know who to believe, but I also don&amp;#x27;t think it matters. My takeaway is that the food bank model for donating to the poor is less viable now. We&amp;#x27;ll have to find a better model moving forward.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bilbo0s</author><text>Hmm. Good point.&lt;p&gt;One question though, are there farmers out there who are &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; taking the famed agricultural subsidies we give out? Because if there are, (even if there are not that many such farmers), I think those guys should be able to monetize their &amp;quot;ugly&amp;quot; produce or fruit all they want. They&amp;#x27;re not being supported by tax money at all.&lt;p&gt;But yes, if we are subsidizing a farmer, we certainly have the right to oblige him to give his scraps to us so we can feed our masses. There&amp;#x27;s nothing unreasonable about that. After all, we&amp;#x27;re only talking about the little food he&amp;#x27;s able to sell only to the guys who literally only take &amp;quot;scraps&amp;quot;.</text></comment>