Tomato Justice

Vegetable or Fruit

• let’s clear up some controversy once and for all
• it seems to be continually in contention what is a fruit and what is a vegetable
• and the tomato is usually the epicenter of everyone’s confusion
• the reason we’ve got all of this confusion
• is because
• you classify plants differently whether you are a chef or a botanist
• botanically speaking
• a tomato is definitely a fruit
• it is a seed bearing structure that arises from the fertilized ovary of a flower
• it’s also technically a berry
• another mind blowing reality that is not at all part of our colloquial speech
• no one says they’re to pick their berries
• when they’re going out to clear off their tomato plant

Photo by Yusaku Mizuno

• a vegetable is basically any other part of a plant
• like the leaves
• roots
• and stems
• it is part of the vegetative tissues of the organism
• as opposed to fruits
• which are composed of reproductive tissues
• but these definitions are not enough to satisfy some people
• in 1893, the supreme court case Nix v. Hedden brought the tomato conflict to the forefront of the justice system
• the Tariff Act of March 3, 1893 required a tax on imported vegetables but not fruit
• so how was the tomato to be taxed?
• since there was profit involved
• this was a big deal
• it was unanimously decided that the tomato was in fact a vegetable
• the court recognized that the tomato is botanically considered a fruit
• but they decided to go with the colloquial definition of a vegetable

They blatantly ignored taxonomy to appease the vegetable importers.

What a world.