Some piece of the federal government recently ruled that UgliRipe tomatoes can be shipped out of Florida to other states, and I just might buy one. Previously it was illegal to ship them out of state because they failed to meet the standards of the Florida Tomato Committee. They are not almost perfectly round, but rather terribly misshapen. (But they are supposed to be tasty.) I wanted to complain briefly that I can see only one reason to regulate the shape of tomatoes: it makes the effective crop smaller and thus raises the price. I’d be happy to buy funny looking tomatoes period, just give me a wider selection!
While preparing to write this blog entry, I found an interesting posting on topic by Ryan Redmond,
here. You can tell Ryan’s focus is a little different, because his posting is titled “Flavor.” He explains that the Tomato committee manages consistency in terms of costs; production limits; marketing; distribution reach; shape, size and color of product. BUT NOT FLAVOR. The committee says flavor is too subjective, leaving Redmond to ask:
What?! Flavor is not a factor?
Since when did the production of food cease to be about flavor?
And he’s got some interesting answers to his question,
check him out.
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