Now what do you do with your produce? In some cases, you might be able to donate it.

Even worse, imagine it’s a good growing year and everyone has surplus supply, so you are unable to sell your produce to any market that’s already inundated with supply. So imagine having to leave half of what you produce in the field, or having it rejected by the market because it doesn’t look like the perfect tomato, potato, or carrot. ¹įarming is hard and dirty work, and the margins are slim to begin with. Feels strange, doesn’t it?īut our produce doesn’t grow perfectly shaped-in fact, according to the USDA, as much as 40 percent of food in the United States is wasted, with so-called ugly produce left in the field to rot or salvaged at pennies to the dollar for processed items, such as canned goods or frozen foods. Imagine a grocery store full of weird-shaped produce: crooked carrots, brown-tinged broccoli, and little lemons. Work, for so many of us, means independence it is the triumph of the human body and mind over all that is within our power to control. And the best way is to give people economic agency through work. Smart people should build things-from trashįor Leila Janah, who taught me to see the value in everything.

God pharaoh's gift trash for treasure