4 ms·

Yeah, this whole piece is from someone with an axe to grind. I get it, Beet Box was more community focused and basically a non-profit masquerading as a startup.

Yeah, this whole piece is from someone with an axe to grind. I get it, Beet Box was more community focused and basically a non-profit masquerading as a startup. It's natural they'd get stomped by a real startup, but in this case, the competition is literally taking trash and making people eat it. It's great! What could be wrong with that? We waste like 40% of all food made in this country.

darkerside 8y ago
But it's not trash. It's food that was being used. I don't think most of Imperfect Produce's customers would subscribe if they knew this food was previously being eaten by people in need. Their entire marketing and product concept is based on a lie.
- jimmywanger 8y ago
  What? So you're mad for what reason exactly? You can say that about most things - if something doesn't have an available market, other people will use the sub-optimal thing. I don't see why that's a problem or why people wouldn't pay money for something other people use for free. If it makes you feel better, you can think of it as supporting farms, because once farms become unprofitable to run as a business, nobody will grow food.
  - dang 8y ago
    Personal swipes are not allowed here, and we ban accounts that do that repeatedly (and we've had to ask you not to do it before), so in the future would you please edit them out? Your comment would be fine without the nasty bits. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- gowld 8y ago
  Imperfect Produce's customers are more than welcome to donate their cost savings or other food to people in need if they are dissatisfied with how much someone else is donating.
  - Apocryphon 8y ago
    Then someone needs to first let them know about this situation, because there is information asymmetry afoot.
  - datavirtue 8y ago
    A market is informed buyers and sellers...this is not market activity it is sleeze.
- imperfect1 8y ago
  To be very clear, we do not sell food that would've otherwise gone to folks in need. We source from the 20 billion pounds of produce that goes to waste on farms–that's after food banks take what they can. As a country, we've barely scratched the surface of this huge problem of food waste. This Feeding American report is a great resource: bit.ly/2wobdjK

darkerside 8y ago

But it's not trash. It's food that was being used. I don't think most of Imperfect Produce's customers would subscribe if they knew this food was previously being eaten by people in need. Their entire marketing and product concept is based on a lie.

jimmywanger 8y ago
What? So you're mad for what reason exactly? You can say that about most things - if something doesn't have an available market, other people will use the sub-optimal thing. I don't see why that's a problem or why people wouldn't pay money for something other people use for free. If it makes you feel better, you can think of it as supporting farms, because once farms become unprofitable to run as a business, nobody will grow food.
- dang 8y ago
  Personal swipes are not allowed here, and we ban accounts that do that repeatedly (and we've had to ask you not to do it before), so in the future would you please edit them out? Your comment would be fine without the nasty bits. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
gowld 8y ago
Imperfect Produce's customers are more than welcome to donate their cost savings or other food to people in need if they are dissatisfied with how much someone else is donating.
- Apocryphon 8y ago
  Then someone needs to first let them know about this situation, because there is information asymmetry afoot.
- datavirtue 8y ago
  A market is informed buyers and sellers...this is not market activity it is sleeze.
imperfect1 8y ago
To be very clear, we do not sell food that would've otherwise gone to folks in need. We source from the 20 billion pounds of produce that goes to waste on farms–that's after food banks take what they can. As a country, we've barely scratched the surface of this huge problem of food waste. This Feeding American report is a great resource: bit.ly/2wobdjK