we are the freaks of the industry

Questionable appendages and twins were plentiful. We visited the State Fair agricultural festival and stumbled upon a competition for the weirdest vegetables. There was an award for the crookedest carrot and another for conjoined corn. It reminded us that when we let nature do her thing, she sometimes has a sense of humor.

Having become dependent on an invisible food network we forget about the freaks, the less-than-perfect produce that gets dropped before it ever hits the store. Instead, conventional waxy and bloated produce appears to magically arrive picture-perfect in neatly stacked piles. We've lost touch with the way real food grows because we rarely see it. And we're missing out on a host of other details that start with lost flavor and end with an array of open-ended questions such as the real effects of pesticides on our health.

Real food is beautifully flawed. It's quirky. Individual. With spots and flecks and nicks and twists. It demands we enjoy it quickly, for it lacks the chemicals that preserve shelf life. Rarely the same from season to season, growing locally gives us pleasure and variety. Comfort in knowing what we're eating. Twisted comedy from the earth and trees.

The EU Recently saw the light and lifted the ban on ugly food.