Saving the world from ugly tomatos

A couple of days ago I wrote that the practice of breeding commercial vegetable varieties for appearance at the expense of all other qualities over the last 50 years has resulted in a shocking decline in their nutritional value (“Eat your heritage vegetables“).

Now, A tomato grower in Florida has been prohibited by the marketing board from selling his produce because they are “too ugly”. The grower, Joe Procacci, has developed a variety called “UglyRipe” which was a result of breeding solely for flavour.

Procacci says he developed the UglyRipe because his customers complained that Florida tomatoes, which are picked green and gassed to spur ripening, tasted “like cardboard.”

Growers complain that Procacci’s UglyRipes could wreck the reputation of Florida tomatoes. To allow misshapen and blemished tomatoes could open the way for a flood of ugly tomatoes to hit the market, says Reggie Brown, the tomato committee’s manager.

God forbid we should be exposed to unattractive vegetables in the supermarket. Why not restrict all offerings to plastic produce, or maybe the wax varieties decorating grandma’s dining room table, and be done with it?

Full article

It’s a fight in Florida, and it’s ugly

By Laura Parker, USA TODAY

Joe Procacci’s tomatoes may taste great, but the Florida Tomato Committee says they’re just too ugly.

Procacci, a produce grower who has bred a special variety of tomato, says he sacrificed looks for taste. And in what could be called the attack of the ugly tomatoes, he says the committee shouldn’t restrict him from selling his UglyRipe brand across the USA. (Related story: Tomato supply about to catch up)

“They are prohibiting trade,” Procacci says of the committee, a 12-member board of tomato growers that dictates the size, shape and skin quality required of Florida-grown tomatoes. “Last year, we had to dump $3 million worth of tomatoes, and we had customers … who were begging for them.”

Misshapen and scarred but having a unique flavor, the UglyRipes Procacci grows in South Florida near Naples initially caused his sales to triple. But Florida’s strict marketing rules require that the state’s tomatoes look almost perfect or they can’t be sold out of state during the winter. Procacci says that’s the time of year when demand for his UglyRipes is highest.

The brewing battle pits Procacci, CEO of Procacci Brothers Sales Corp., against a powerful but little-understood marketing committee.

Marketing committees were set up by Congress in 1937 to allow small farmers of fruits, vegetables and nuts to join together and set marketing standards. Today, 34 such boards impose strict controls over quality and packaging. Procacci says the Florida Tomato Committee is attempting to kill his UglyRipe business because it considers it a threat. But his UglyRipes are not direct competitors to the round-as-a-baseball Florida tomato found in every grocery store and on fast-food hamburger buns. UglyRipes sell for twice the price as regular tomatoes.

Growers complain that Procacci’s UglyRipes could wreck the reputation of Florida tomatoes. To allow misshapen and blemished tomatoes could open the way for a flood of ugly tomatoes to hit the market, says Reggie Brown, the tomato committee’s manager.

“If you allowed the producers of UglyRipe to ship any quality of tomato, then how could you justify not allowing any quality tomato into the market place?” he asks. The rules governing Florida’s $500 million-a-year industry, which dominates the fresh tomato market in the USA and annually sends 1.45 billion pounds of tomatoes north, have been in place for decades.

Tomatoes grown west of the Suwannee River in Florida, as well as grape, cherry, Roma and greenhouse tomatoes, are exempt from the rules.

For three years, while Procacci developed his new tomato, the UglyRipes were also exempt. But then the committee cracked down. Two winters ago, it ordered UglyRipe to comply with the rules, forcing Procacci to discard 40,000 pounds a day. He is appealing this winter’s decision but says he does not expect to win.

Procacci says he developed the UglyRipe because his customers complained that Florida tomatoes, which are picked green and gassed to spur ripening, tasted “like cardboard.”

“We developed something that people have been asking for for 50 years,” he says. “Everybody complains about the taste of tomatoes.”

What makes the dispute more problematic for the committee is the attention the controversy focuses on the tomato industry’s most glaring weakness – taste.

“Everybody has an emotional attachment with a tomato they’ve grown and the memory of that taste,” Brown says. “If you hold me to the standard of the tomato that you’re emotionally attached to, I’ll never meet that standard. You can’t beat a memory.”