Creating Massive Social Change, One Bad Apple at a Time
To solve the climate crisis we need innovative solutions, there is no disagreement about that. And there are people doing some ridiculously innovative things, especially when it comes to food. There’s a wide range of solutions being launched, from up-cycling food waste into new food to making clothing out of milk waste, that would have seemed unfathomable only a few years ago.
Most estimates say that 40% of food in America goes to waste. The average American household throws out 150,000 tons of food every day. And grocery stores throw away an estimated 21 million tons of food every year. In case you are like me and those numbers are so big they have very little meaning, think about this: the average size of an elephant is 4-7 tons. Grocery stores are throwing away 7 million elephants worth of food every year. Kind of makes that straw you used last week seem less important, huh?
Makes sense that innovative entrepreneurs are coming up with ways to up-cycle and reuse that food waste. One of the most innovative things happening with food waste is that it is being used as …
… food!
Companies like Bad Apple Produce, founded by Anya Ranganathan, are taking food that would otherwise be thrown away and using it for food. And it’s no less genius than using it to make t-shirts or snacks (which are probably wrapped in plastic that is going to end up in the landfill). In fact, I’m here to argue that it’s more genius. Think about it. Those awesome t-shirts, made from milk waste, are probably going to end up in the landfill eventually, and all those cool snacks made from spent beer grains and other food waste are probably packaged in plastic wrappers that are going straight to the trash.
The food that Bad Apple Produce rescues ends up in people stomach’s! That’s definitely winning.
Backing up a step from the grocery store, the first point of food surplus is actually the farmers. Did you know that many grocery stores follow the USDA’s grading system, designed to promote uniformity, when deciding what food to have in their store? These industry practices emerged because stores are convinced that people find food less appealing if it doesn’t look the same. For example, a Gala apple that has less than 50% red coloring in their peel, a sweet potato that’s too big, and melons with sugar lines could all be rejected from a grocery store.
This is not about taste or nutrition or even freshness. In fact, not only do those things not affect the nutrition or freshness of the food, but the sweetest melons develop scarring that is called sugar lines. That’s right - the sweetest melons.
And the food that is rejected by the stores often becomes food waste. Anya and the team at Bad Apple Produce by this food straight from the farmers and local food businesses and sell it to residents in New York City. And they deliver it.
Which is another thing that makes Anya a master innovator. She didn’t start her company just to deal with food waste. She started it to get fruits and veggies into the hands of people who want them and can’t afford them, don’t have access to them, or don’t have a way to get them home.
Because, while all that food goes to waste every year in America, it is also true that 1/6 of Americans don’t have enough to eat. Over half of the Americans who don’t have enough food to eat are employed, which means they likely don’t qualify for food banks and other initiatives designed to help get food to people who can’t afford it.
This co-mission of Bad Apple Produce can be seen in every step of their journey. In the very early days of COVID-19, they completely refitted their model (in only one week!) to service people who were now stuck at home and started donating their own excess produce to local food banks, whose demand increased 40%.
This fall they partnered with Matriark Foods, Table to Table, and AeroFarms on an innovative food waste reduction project called FarmPlus to People. They donated surplus sweet potatoes, onions, and carrots which were turned into a stew and distributed to hundreds of thousands of families in northern New Jersey.
As an added bonus, the company is womxn owned and committed to paying a living wage. Anya and Bad Apple Produce are living proof that sometimes the most innovative solutions - and the ones with the greatest potential for social change - can be the simplest.
If you are in the New York area, sign up for a delivery with Bad Apple Produce today. You can use the code FREEAVO to receive a free avocado in every order, for life, and to save $20 off your first delivery.
In Paid Partnership with Bad Apple Produce