As we begin a new crop season I want to share some alarming facts about the food you will produce in 2017. Most of this data comes from a series of articles by National Geographic in March 2016. Hunger knows no borders. As a human race, we need to do more to salvage the nutrition we discard annually. This problem is global in nature. Each society and nation has its own particular reasons for this waste. The net result is nutritious food never reaches those who are starving.

Industrialized countries lose fewer fruits and vegetables in production, but consumers waste more. In developing countries more is lost in production, but consumers throw out less. Globally 46% of fruits and vegetables never make it to a fork. Every year 2.9 trillion pounds of food-about a third of the production never gets consumed globally.

You should be asking yourself where does this break down develop? In the US 20% is lost at harvest many times due to color or size. Wholesale and Grocery are responsible or a 9% shrink. As a consuming public we, on average, discard 19% of our food. Here in the US we discard as much as 6 billion pounds of fruits and vegetables due to aesthetic reasons alone. We buy too often based on our perception of perfection that has zero to do with food quality.

Today we spend almost an equal amount on food in restaurants as we do in grocery stores. Too often portions are served in excess of our appetites. In the last 50 years todays “cup of coffee” is actually closer to 2 than 1 cup. Dinner plates are 36% bigger than 50 years ago. Yet we continue to fill our plates only to discard nutritious food.

I share this with you as you consider that in today’s market place there is virtually no market for anything less than perfect. Maybe this will help give you the courage to thin a little harder or remove varieties that are no longer aesthetically perfect by 2017 standards.