Here ’s a scene you ’ll probably see this summer : you ’ll be at a barbecue or picnic , enjoying squeamish , fresh in - season tomato plant , and you might make an unrehearsed comment about Lycopersicon esculentum being your best-loved veggie . Almost immediately , some bonk - it - all will pipe up with , " Tomatoes are fruit , not vegetables!“
No one would fault you if you secern your donnish guest , " Wow ! Thanks for adjust me ! It ’s vindicated now why everyone enjoys your party so much!“ That response is a snatch aggressive , though , so try this one alternatively : " Actually , according to the Supreme Court , tomato are vegetables . I ’m just trying to keep this snap nice and effectual . “
Yes , the Supreme Court has count in on the " Are tomato fruit or vegetables?“ argumentation , and the justness come to a firm decision : tomato plant are veggies . Let ’s take a look at how this momentous decision come to pass .
The Trouble with Tariffs
Like a lot of American ' history , the great Lycopersicon esculentum public debate was the merchandise of a tariff .
In March 1883 , Congress pass a new duty bit that put a 10 - per centum signification duty on any whole vegetable convey into the country . The fresh tariff did n’t really cause any hullabaloo until the green groceries - spell Nix folk sample to bring a load of love apple from the West Indies into New York . The aggregator of the porthole of New York , Edward L. Hedden , charged the Nixes the 10 - percent duty on their tasty ware despite their angry protestation that love apple were fruits , not vegetables . Hedden refuse to sort the offending Lycopersicon esculentum as yield , so the Nixes sued him to recuperate their duty duties .
Ripening Justice
Botanically , the Nix class had an airtight guinea pig . Tomatoes fit the measure of being the sarcoid ripened ovary of a works , which make them fruits . de jure , thing were n’t quite so open - and - shut , though . The Nixes ' efforts to be reimburse for the duty duties kicked off a six - year effectual conflict that ended with arguments before the Supreme Court in 1893 . The Nix syndicate ’s lawyer read the Justices the definitions for " fruit,“ " vegetable,“ and " tomato" from various dictionaries and even promise in expert testimonial from fellow garden truck merchants on whether the grocer retrieve tomatoes were yield or vegetable .
The defense used many of the same tactics in its campaign to win over the justices that tomatoes were indeed vegetables . The defense counsel went to the lexicon for definition for " squash,“ " pepper,“ " eggplant,“ and " cucumber . “ The defense ’s literary argument was moderately simple : sure , tomatoes were biologically a fruit , but for the purposes of trade and Commerce Department — that is , the thing covered by the Tariff Act of 1883 — tomatoes were really vegetables .
The Court Rules
When faced with this information , the Supreme Court unanimously found that Lycopersicon esculentum were vegetables . Justice Horace Gray admit in his determination that while tomatoes were technically the fruit of a vine , they were always served " at dinner in , with , or after the soup fish or meat which plant the principal part of the repast , and not , like yield by and large , as dessert . “In other words , unless citizenry want to start crest a meal with tomato ice emollient , tomato were for all design and intention veg and could be tax as such . The Nix phratry was n’t get its significance duties back .
Sound strange ? Here ’s something that ’s even eldritch : the Supreme Court actually had a precedent for a very similar issue . In his decision Justice Gray reference a previous Supreme Court case , Robertson v. Salomon , in which Justice Joseph P. Bradley had written the opinion that beans were vegetables rather than seeds . In that 1892 decision , Bradley rebuffed the notion that bean plant were seeds :
Tomatoes-As-Veggies Lives On
At first glimpse , the Nix v. Hedden decision sounds like a specious Age curiosity , but the whole " tomatoes are a vegetable" notion still pops up from time to metre . In 1981 the Reagan brass was searching for shipway to cut down school lunch costs while still providing students with the full nutritious lunch consisting of Milk River , heart , bread , and two servings of vegetables . USDA bureaucrat reach on the idea of counting catsup as one of the servings of vegetable under the system of logic that tomato ketchup was cheap and kid - favorable .
As you might imagine , parent and the sensitive were n’t so piercing on the idea of counting a cytologic smear of ketchup on a Warren Earl Burger as eat on your veg . The proposition enraged parents and nutritionists likewise , and the administration quickly trash the program .
