Tomatoes Become Partisan Issue in NJ

[Kire]

The political adventures of New Jersey's `highly partisan' tomato

By Lisa Anderson Tribune national correspondentSat Apr 30, 9:40 AM ET

You say to-may-toe, I say toe-mah-toe. New Jersey Republicans say it's a fruit, Democrats say it's a vegetable. And, though botanists side firmly with the fruit faction in this political food fight, state legislators have introduced bills designating the tomato as the official state vegetable.

"The tomato is a highly partisan issue in New Jersey," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which conducted a survey on the topic in March. It found that more Republicans and independent voters are in the fruit camp, while Democrats lean to the vegetable side.

That it's an issue at all is somewhat embarrassing for the Garden State, which long has lacked a signature vegetable. It didn't even have a state fruit until 2003, when the blueberry was picked, squeezing out the tomato for that honor.

Bruised but undaunted, the much-vaunted Jersey tomato is back in play, possibly facing a challenge from sweet corn, which is rumored to have the ears of some at the Statehouse in Trenton.

Mor: http://tinyurl.com/dbavf

[LiberalEsto]

1. And the state's official environmental disaster

is the leaking toxic waste dump.

Which is what gives the tomatos their flavors.


LibE, ex-Jerseyan

[NJCher]

9. how dare you say that!

It's the hot, humid weather in the summertime that gives NJ tomatoes their flavor!!

(Sniff.)


Cher

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. Tomatoes can kiss my ass...

it's all about the sweet corn. I can't wait till that stuff is harvested!

[Kire]

3. "Aaaargh!..."

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. I'll take my chances with angering the tomatoes...

I still like corn better

[Kire]

6. you're actually right

let the tomato be the state fruit, and corn be the state vegetable

I assume my assembly people are already voting my way. They're pub's. :grr:

[mcscajun]

5. Depends how you look at it...botanically, horticulturally, or legally.

Tomato -- Fruit or Vegetable?

Botanically speaking, the tomato you eat is a fruit. So is a watermelon, green pepper, eggplant, cucumber, and squash. A "fruit" is any fleshy material covering a seed or seeds.

Horticulturally speaking, the tomato is a vegetable plant. The plant is an annual and nonwoody. Most fruits, from a horticulture perspective, are grown on a woody plant (apples, cherries, raspberries, oranges) with the exception of strawberries.

In 1893, the United States Supreme Court ruled the tomato was a "vegetable" and therefore subject to import taxes. The suit was brought by a consortium of growers who wanted it declared a vegetable to protect U.S. crop development and prices. Fruits, at that time, were not subjected to import taxes and foreign countries could flood the market with lower priced produce. (A hundred years really hasn't changed anything.)

http://www.solutions.uiuc.edu/printme.cfm?item=514&series=4

Of course, we know the Republicans would only go along with the Supreme Court when it suits them to do so.

[BlueEyedSon]

7. McGreevey for NJ state fruit?

:evilgrin:

[Reverend_Smitty]

8. rim shot...

hey-oooooooo

[meow2u3]

10. The Repukes are right for a change

Technically, tomatoes are fruits because they contain seeds. They're only eaten as if they were vegetables because they're not very sweet. BTW, cucumbers, zucchini, and avocadoes are also fruits, biologically, also because they're seeded.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[mcscajun]

11. See my response upthread.

:)