I came across an interesting article today by Rebecca Rupp of the National Geographic's The Plate about pears shaped like baby buddhas. Yes, you heard me correctly, pears shaped like baby buddhas!
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| Pear shaped like a baby buddha (photo from the National Geographic) |
A while back we talked about a National Geographic series, the Future of Food, which aims to investigate how food will change with increasing pressures such as climate change and growing global populations. This article on buddha pears is part of this series, despite its rather light and airy tone (in case you're wondering, the pears are shaped this way thanks to specially designed molds in which the pears are grown). However, the article isn't all about funny-looking fruit. The main message that Rupp is trying to convey is that food is routinely wasted because it doesn't meet society's aesthetic requirements. Rupp goes on to talk about regulations which only allow the sale of produce that conforms with certain aesthetic standards and what certain companies are doing to try to decrease the waste of "imperfect" produce.
Personally, I love it when I buy a bag of carrots to find a forked one, or cutting into a bunch of beets to find that one of them has two heads. On the whole, I don't tend to favour fruits and vegetables which seem more perfect than others. I was wondering how you feel about what your fruits and veggies look like? Do you prefer consuming vegetables and fruits that all fit the same mold, so to speak? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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