As much as we want to blame individual consumers, a lot of this problem goes back to Big Box Retailers. In many, many places there simply isn't a choice - you g

As much as we want to blame individual consumers, a lot of this problem goes back to Big Box Retailers. In many, many places there simply isn't a choice - you go to one of either Walmart or Kroger or Safeway to get food, because that's the only market in 20 miles from your home. Because these places put such a high demand on perfect produce, they can charge more for that produce, and Americans find it harder and harder to afford eating their fruits and veg because it's too expensive to have food that rots when you're working 10 hour days vs. something in a can that is immortal. It can be quite difficult justifying the price tag on that bag of apples when you're not sure you can get through the whole bag, and two individual apples will end up costing you just as much as the bag because they carry the bullshit "organic" label. (And those are usually the two options you get - no non-organic freestanding take-as-many-as-you-think-you-can-eat apples by the pound for you; same goes for potatoes, carrots, onions, etc.) Lose-lose for the consumer. I've been told again and again that there's some evidence us consumers have to be looked out for and have perfect, pristine produce, and yet I happily buy from a farmer's market the most knobbly carrots and potatoes and see many of my neighbors doing the same out here in Mountain View. They're often even more flavorful than the supermarket alternative, and since they're from nearer by (and didn't go through the industrial food transportation and refrigeration system where they're battered and shocked), they often don't spoil as quickly either. Maybe the real problem is that Big Box Retailers have overconsolidated markets so much that there's no venue to sell this "less-than-perfect" produce to people.