The Ugly Company was founded by Ben Moore, a fourth-generation farmer from the Central Valley of California, where 60% of America’s fruits/nuts are produced. Growing up, Ben and his family hauled truck load after truck load of fresh fruit to dump in open fields because it was considered 'Ugly.' This amounted to 2-4 million pounds of fresh fruit being wasted each day during harvest season. In fact, more peaches are dumped in the Central Valley than is produced in the entire state of Georgia. After college Ben joined the Army, giving him the opportunity to travel the world and experience different places and cultures. When he returned home to the Central Valley, he realized the scale of wastefulness happening and decided to do something about it – thus The Ugly Company was born.