This bugs me under normal circumstances--as I think that we've gotten a little out of hand with the idea of perfect produce in this country--but in a year of a tomato shortage, this is abolutely outrageous.
The issue is this: A horticulturist/agri-business type developed a rather lumpy looking tomato that earned the name UglyRipe. It tasted delicious and sales flourished.
This year, though:
Quote:
the Florida Tomato Committee, after exempting the UglyRipe from its standards for its three banner years, voted 8-3 in January to end the exemption for the second straight season. They say UglyRipes fail to meet the standards for a Florida Round tomato, the predominant variety in Florida and in many of the nation's supermarkets.
. . .
While Florida's Tomato Committee continued exemptions for cherry, plum and greenhouse-grown beefsteak tomatoes, said Reggie Brown, manager of the Tomato Committee, too many exemptions would cause "chaos." It also might allow substandard tomatoes to flood the market, he said.
Procacci argues that his tomato is an heirloom tomato, not a Florida Round tomato. But the Florida Tomato Committee has no definition or standard for heirloom tomatoes. And, however good UglyRipes may taste, 80 percent of them, according to Procacci, are not round enough to pass muster as Florida Rounds for sale outside Florida.
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This means that Florida won't let these tomatoes be shipped out of state. Which means that you and I (unless you live in or we visit Florida) can't eat them.
Damnit, I don't care what the tomato looks like! I just want a good, tasty tomato. I'm also irritated that we're all forced to eat mass-produced, agri-business tomatoes that are engineered to meet these appearance standards but don't taste very good when there are so many wonderful not-so-pretty, but oh-so-tasty varieties out there.
I guess this just means that I'm gonna have to buy a couple of tomato plants and do it myself.
