It’s the pride movement you probably haven’t heard of yet: a push for the acceptance and even the love of uglyfruit and vegetables.

      Fruit and vegetables come in every shape and size, of course, just like people do. But while we celebratedifferences in people, we reject differences in our produce. We don’t like the half-launched lemon, the puny pear,or the bent banana.

     We may sense that Mother Nature is a gnarly lady, but we’ve never actually seen much of what she creates. It’sbeen hidden from us by federal standards and the aesthetic guidelines of major food sellers. A culture of food porndoesn’t help. We all seem to be eating with our eyes, not our mouths.

     But this is starting to change.

     Raley’s Supermarket in California became the first major American chain to sell gloriously grotesque produce.“You’ve got to think about what you’re not seeing in the grocery store, and that’s what we’re doing with Imperfect”,Ben Simon, the company’s co-founder said.

     He’s 25, not so ugly himself, and a canny businessperson. His passion is fueled by a recognition of the fact thatAmericans waste too much—food especially, and fruits and vegetables most of all. More than half the fruits andvegetables grown in this country never get eaten, according to an influential 2012 study by the National ResourcesDefense Council. Many are purchased but later tossed. But another large portion – about 20% – never even ends upin stores. And for a very superficial reason: they look bad. They don’t have bugs or disease or any other health-related problem. They are simply ugly by the obsessive standards of modern America.

     Simon realized that this is a multi-faceted disaster for the environment. It’s a major loss of water, at least 25gallons for every pound of uneaten fresh food. It’s a major contributor to landfills, where rotting food leechesmethane—a greenhouse gas. Food waste contributes so much to global emissions that if it were a country it wouldrank third, behind only China and the U.S.

    Our obsession with pretty fruit and perfect vegetables is also a mockery of the millions of people who wouldlike any kind of fruit and veggies but can’t afford them. Simon’s company addresses this problem too. Farmers usedto leave ugly fruits and vegetables in the field to rot, knowing they would never sell. Those that partner withImperfect, however, get about 70 percent of the normal market value. Simon then passes the difference tocustomers.