> Paying normal prices for bruised apples? No thanks.

And because arranging different pricing for all the foodstuffs that look less than perfect costs more than profit on these items, into the bin goes perfectly good food.

Arranging different pricing for foodstuff that looks less than perfect happens all the time. How do you think very low price grocery stores are able to sell produce way cheaper than fancy stores. They buy lower grades[1] of produce for people who are more price sensitive.

[1] For an example of how this type of quality separation happens, check out https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/apple-grades-stand...

Apple juice is made from bruised apples. They have to get damaged late enough in the supply chain to get put on a shelf at all.

I bet most bruises are actually caused by shoppers once on a shelf.

It seems like you are making an unstated assumption that food being thrown away is a bad thing.

I'm not convinced. Let's say a farmer wanted to reduce foodwaste. So they only sold perfect fruit that they knew would get bought. That would drive up the prices of those perfect fruit AND there would be less fruit for sale in total.

Therefore, some amount of food waste should be acceptable to ensure the best outcome for everyone.

I used to work in a tomato greenhouse. If a tomato had a spot? It doesn't go into the packaging for stores. It goes into the bin for Heinz.

> Let's say a farmer wanted to reduce foodwaste. So they only sold perfect fruit that they knew would get bought.

Selling only perfect fruit is literally foodwaste right there. Fruits don't grow all perfect. If most of the fruit you see in store looks flawless, that literally means that most of the fruit harvested was either sold to another company or thrown away.

>Selling only perfect fruit is literally foodwaste right there.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you haven't exactly explained why "food waste" is a bad thing. I've given a reason why it could be considered a good thing: it can reduce the cost and increase total food that is purchased.

For an absurd example, see the "Eat your vegetables, because there are children starving in China" argument. Just because it would be nice if every hungry person had food, doesn't mean that letting any food go to waste is necessarily immoral by itself.

I’m not even sure the person who randomly picks bruised fruit would on their own account eat bruised fruit—just that for someone else they might be less discerning...