“Fresh” fruit sold in a posh Tokyo Midtown supermarket. Brilliant symmetries and perfections and curious delicate packing. Sorted and curated specimens. At dinner that night, I was told that Japan basically imports all of its fruit, so it becomes rather like something precious. Perhaps the plastic/foam packaging implies this delicate character of the fruit, as much as it likely serves to protect the fruit from bruising during shipment from more tropical climates. Any proper farmer’s market will quickly remind you that fruit does not look like this at all. It is often quite unsymmetrical and quite more “natural” colors — not looking like a sample of Pantone process inks. The only thing fresh about this fruit, I’m fairly certain, is that it’s just ripened after a hop over from, say, the Philippines.
In the midst of a world-wide food crisis — hoarding, plain lack, prices adjusted upward to account for increasing transportation/fuel costs — such staples as fruit may likely become even more precious than what this image suggests. Soylent Green anybody?