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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] It's a fight in Florida, and it's ugly
  • Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 14:07:34 -0700


It's a fight in Florida, and it's ugly
Thu Dec 9, 6:26 AM ET By Laura Parker, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-12-08-uglyripe_x.htm

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."






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