£12.00
Eat Ugly by Harriet Stansall
Illustrator Harriet Stansall has created a poster using acrylic and gouache to campaign against fussiness when we are picking fresh produce, which is partially responsible for the astronomical amount of food that goes to waste worldwide.
“Our obsession with the flawless aesthetics of our food means that much of the rejected produce that tastes perfectly good gets wasted, along with the huge amount of water, energy and land resources that are required to grow them,” says Harriet. “It’s ridiculous, as veg tastes the same, regardless of size or shape. And who cares when it’s in a curry! My poster takes inspiration from inner beauty campaigns and wartime propaganda like the ‘dig for victory’ posters, as panicking about the shape of a vegetable certainly wouldn’t have gone down in the war. We need to change our mindset and be less fussy. Give the unattractive fruit and veg a chance and eat ugly.”
Why?
In meeting consumer’s high standards on physical appearance, supermarkets will turn away entire crops of fruit and vegetables, meaning that 30% of the UK’s vegetable crop isn’t harvested. Globally, retailers generate 1.6 million tonnes of food waste a year in this way, and it’s all because we’re being picky.
How?
Loose your inhibitions in the vegetable aisle and buy only the weirdest of the weird. It tastes just the same after all. You never know, one day you might find a potato that looks like Ghandi and make a small fortune out of it.
