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Conformity Even Comes With Tomatoes

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posted on Jan, 6 2005 @ 09:03 AM
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Let's face it...if you're in the working world or in school, we all know about the social anxiety of conformity...we either battle it or accept it, but we all know it's there...

"UglyRipe"


"Beef Master"


So which one is ugly? �Clearly� it's the own labeled the UglyRipe....But does that mean you should not be given an equal opportunity to purchase it for its better flavor?!

When I picked up the paper this morning...that's what I was told:
Tomato too ugly for export



The committee decreed that tomatoes indeed will be round, with an 8-3 vote that effectively bans the export of the winter-grown UglyRipe north and west of the Suwannee River, including the Tallahassee area. That's because the lumpy tomato can't meet roundness standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1991.


So it's not some big secret that the US Department of Agriculture sets standards for what is considered "good enough" for the average American citizen to eat, right? But have you read one before??

United States Standards for Grades of Fresh Tomatoes (pdf)

Now surely these standards exist for good purposes...right?? Who wants to spend their time in the supermarket sifting through rotten and malformed tomatoes to finally get to one that's worth taking home.....

But maybe that's not always the case...



"They feel threatened by our tomato, because it tastes so much better than anything on the market," Procacci said.


Now when's the last time any of use actually felt threatened by a tomato?


Well - who knows....maybe after a hundred more years of engineering the DNA of our tomatoes, they may come out to look and act like this....lol....

My message? The point of all this? Why does the government give a damn what we consider to be aesthetically pleasing, if for any other reason than to make more money off of what they know (or think) more people will buy?

Of course, this all ties into our popular culture and how we currently perceive the world around us...

When most of America thinks that this is a superb example of American �home grown� beauty...Then maybe we need to reanalyze our approach....




"The reality is, the American consumer doesn't care about looks when it comes to heirloom tomatoes," Procacci said. "They're very forgiving of the way it looks if they want the taste."

Now that is the truth.....no twists of conformity on his breath....



posted on Jan, 6 2005 @ 09:21 AM
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Excellent post.

Excellent point.


I think that the people in general have been so conditioned to conform in so many instances that the "tomato conformity" will not shock most.

Wide-use labels are everywhere. And it seems with every passing year there are more of them and easier and easier to apply.

I know people want things simple, they want to have what seems to be "straightforward" info placed in front of them so they need not waste time looking too deep into subjects. But the question is: "At what expense?"

How is it that we've gotten so far away from the spirit of questioning "reliable sources"? For many, a government report could come out later today claiming the Sky was infact not blue, but it was really pink and had just been mis-labeled up until now, and they'd go with it.

What is is about governmental and cultural "norms" that keep people from "digging deeper" or questioning the information fed to them?

I personally believe that the lack of this once-cherished "spirit of thought" will eventually be the downfall of us all.

Good thoughts once again.

X



posted on Jan, 6 2005 @ 09:44 AM
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Thanks
- It was boiling up inside of me on the way to work...


Originally posted by Xatnys
How is it that we've gotten so far away from the spirit of questioning "reliable sources"? For many, a government report could come out later today claiming the Sky was in fact not blue, but it was really pink and had just been mislabeled up until now, and they'd go with it.

I'm sure it will come out later today...I've been waiting and waiting for it.
Seriously though...It's not far from the truth...We are fed lies "for our protection" but when we spot the lie and pursue the "fruit of our desire" without incurring excess bodily harm or risk, at what point do the barriers come down?

Probably never...It's that sense of control and raw power - regardless of one's best intentions, bigotry and narrow-mindedness gets those with extreme power nowhere but stalled in the sky with not a place to go but down....



I personally believe that the lack of this once-cherished "spirit of thought" will eventually be the downfall of us all.

When the pilgrims sailed the seas to seek religious freedom, did they foresee a society that told them what kind of fruits and vegetables they should be allowed to eat?

Of course not....but they were also not as advanced a society as we are today...A civilized state society comes with greater infringements upon the individual to create a greater benefit to the masses....but the shape of a tomato?? Come on....



[edit on 1/6/2005 by EnronOutrunHomerun]



posted on Jan, 6 2005 @ 10:03 AM
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the lumpy tomato can't meet roundness standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1991.


Are these people kidding?
A roundness standard?

Let people buy the ugly tomatos if that's what they want.

If they want to restrict foods, perhaps they should restrict based upon nutrition not appearance.

Does someone profit from having farmers buy seed of a particular variety like beef master?

Did they lobby to make it more difficult for farmers to use older, more common varieties?



posted on Jan, 6 2005 @ 10:13 AM
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Originally posted by AceOfBase
Does someone profit from having farmers buy seed of a particular variety like beef master?

I'm not sure...but I wouldn't be surprised...They know that x amount of people will buy tomato A as opposed to tomato B - I guess its supply and demand that's been slowly worked into common law...



Did they lobby to make it more difficult for farmers to use older, more common varieties?

I'm not sure if it's been made more difficult by lobbyists, but what I do know is that when a certain fruit or vegetable is labeled as an "heirloom" variety, they're treated special...

Most people don�t' know what an heirloom tomato is...In actuality, there are dozens of varieties that far exceed the growing quality and taste of an Average Joe tomato...


But they don't fit the bill of the image of a perfect tomato - the one the gov't tells us is "perfect" - so they don't pass the test and thus they don't get sold in supermarkets...you have to go to your local farmer's market to purchase such produce, which of course, every American should do but not everyone can...

Of course, the issues of tomatoes are a bag of peanuts compared to everything else the gov't represses from us via conformity....



posted on Jan, 6 2005 @ 10:15 AM
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Unfortunately commerce rules and beauty sells -I guess this is effect of study "how to approach generation, which grew up with TV"
If something/somebody looks pretty/nice must be perfect then, right?



posted on Jan, 6 2005 @ 10:37 AM
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Originally posted by jazzgul
If something/somebody looks pretty/nice must be perfect then, right?


Indeed. Even if on the inside it is dead, barren and infested with worms.

What a wonderful world we live in!

X



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