Embracing Biodiversity and Reducing Food Waste with Sarah Phillips

To see more of Sarah’s seasonal food creations, follow @uglyproduceisbeautiful on Instagram.

For Sarah Phillips (@uglyproduceisbeautiful), promoting sustainable food habits is about showing, not telling. The Chicago-born, California-raised entrepreneur creates vivid foodscapes interwoven with vibrant citrus, fresh-from-the-dirt root vegetables and edible flowers, encouraging others to embrace biodiversity in the produce that they buy. “I just want people to see that it’s Earth’s gift to us — and it’s OK if it’s irregular, bumpy, lumpy, scarred, little, big, small. We should embrace food the way we should be embracing people: all different sizes and shapes.” In her effort to address the portion of food that goes uneaten in the United States (currently estimated at about 40 percent) Sarah churns out seasonal recipes and has begun collaborating with broader social good campaigns. “Instead of running around yelling, ‘Buy ugly produce!’ I give people a way to use it, and then how to store it. And it’s not just me; it’s a team effort,” she says. “So many great organizations are talking about hunger, food waste, sustainability, it’s a whole big picture that fits together.”

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Embracing Biodiversity and Reducing Food Waste with Sarah Phillips