What? A tomato is a vegetable?

[jal_ut]

A little interesting trivia: in the US, thanks to a US Supreme Court decision in 1893, tomatoes are vegetables.

[jal_ut]

Justice Gray said: “[A]lthough botanists consider the tomato a fruit, tomatoes are eaten as a principal part of a meal, like squash or peas, (and all grow on vines), so it is the court’s decision that the tomato is a vegetable.â€

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know why it would have been a Supreme Court case back in 1893. These days it is an important distinction for places like schools, prisons etc that are required to feed their inmates a certain number/ proportion of vegetables daily. I think there was a recent case about a school system trying to have ketchup declared a vegetable, so it would count towards their servings of vegetables requirement.

[Lianne]

Who on earth would sue, much less pursue it to the Supreme Court, over whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable?
Here in Texas, if it isn't moving too fast, we eat it and ask its name later.

Aint that the truth! Hope you guys in central TX are getting a bit of rain this week too

[jal_ut]

ask.com has all sorts of info. Ask anything and see what you get.

It had to do with taxing fruits and not vegetables.

[applestar]

places like schools, prisons etc that are required to feed their inmates

I just HAD to highlight these words

[Ohio Tiller]

And who made them vegetable experts?

[gixxerific]

Yeah they did that mainly since than they could tax tomatoes coming in since fruit had no tax. It was almost beat but than they came up with the red tape to pull one over on us.

We al know it is a fruit though, oh I mean vegetable. Yeah thats it......

[DoubleDogFarm]

[mhannum]

Interesting... and strange!

I suspect the tomatoes don't care what they are reclassified as, of course!

Cool post!

[jal_ut]

GRIN.

I was just giving someone a hard time for moving my tomato post to the tomato forum. Sheesh, I thought everyone knew that a tomato is a vegetable...........

[webmaster]

I was just giving someone a hard time for moving my tomato post to the tomato forum.

Why would you want to give someone a hard time for moving a tomato post to the tomato forum so that the tomato post received more responses to it? Why would you want to give someone a hard time for being motivated to help you?

[rainbowgardener]

Relax, Roger! James labelled his post GRIN, and and "to give someone a hard time" is just to tease them, it doesn't mean literally make anything difficult.

[jal_ut]

Oops! I did it again......... said, "Tomato" in the vegetable forum. Lookie how fast the mods are all over it.............................. Naughty me.

[GardenRN]

It was my understanding that all fruits were vegetable anyways. Any part of a plant that we eat is a "vegetable".

Vegetable:
1. any plant whose fruit, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, or flower parts are used as food, as the tomato, bean, beet, potato, onion, asparagus, spinach, or cauliflower.

2.the edible part of such a plant, as the tuber of the potato.

3.any member of the vegetable kingdom; plant.

Fruit
1. any product of plant growth useful to humans or animals.

2.the developed ovary of a seed plant with its contents and accessory parts, as the pea pod, nut, tomato, or pineapple.

3.the edible part of a plant developed from a flower, with any accessory tissues, as the peach, mulberry, or banana.

4.the spores and accessory organs of ferns, mosses, fungi, algae, or lichen.

5.anything produced or accruing; product, result, or effect; return or profit: the fruits of one's labors.

So tomato is in both dictionary definitions of fruit AND vegetable. I guess if the court says football is baseball, its friggin baseball right?

[Avonnow]

You know what I think - I think anything produced with the instruction or advice or consent of the government is not food to begin with, every since reading that book "Tomatoland" GREAT BOOK - I haven't touched a tomato that I did not grow - I look at them in disgust as I roll through the supermarkets. They are tainted balls of something, but healthy vegetation (fruit or veggie) they are not.

[ReptileAddiction]

I am going to look for that book. Frankly I am kinda scared to though considering I eat supermarket tomatos.......

[DoubleDogFarm]

Barry Estabrook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN48HPG_8T8

Immokalee Florida

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBc4cOg9-ks&feature=related


Eric

[GreenPaul]

Yeah they did that mainly since than they could tax tomatoes coming in since fruit had no tax. It was almost beat but than they came up with the red tape to pull one over on us.

We al know it is a fruit though, oh I mean vegetable. Yeah thats it......

Why would the tax vegetables, but not fruit?

I know - to support the domestic production, but you also produce apples, pears and other fruits that can be grown in US climate - so why not tax these either?

Just being curious or maybe even thinking too much.

[rainbowgardener]

Are you expecting government to be logical?