It's a really horrible amount of waste that easily could solve many issues around poverty and hunger, but yet, very little action. Good to see more momentum around food waste.
It's a very hard working/high demand place, it wouldn't be uncommon for the boss to have a 16 hour day every so often. Meth runs rampant for people to stay awake, people take a piss in the corner of the factory and have a smoke while packing. Anything that has a cut or bruise gets thrown in the trash, not sent to another place to get processed, not composted, just thrown in the trash.
Any staff can take home stuff at the end of the day that doesn't get thrown out, this would be enough veggies/fruits for 1-2 weeks for them.. just from a single day.
The short answer -- a properly ripe tomato doesn't need any help whatsoever from salt or sugar to make it tasty.
If the customer desires a slower-growing plant, the customer will get a slower-growing plant (assuming the tech companies are able to make the science work, but that's outside of the hands of farmers). Although knowing the average consumer, there is a good chance they would never accept a slower-growing plant as it may cause autism or some other story that they start to spread around.
". The loss of these beneficial nutrients did not begin 50 or 100 years ago, as many assume. Unwittingly, we have been stripping phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000 years ago and became farmers."
The rising CO2 doesn't help tho.