It sounds like a game show question but really, what are tomatoes? Tomatoes are one of those things that straddle both spheres, technically they’re a fruit, but in reality, tomatoes are used as vegetables, it’s pretty annoying, right? Well, a few people tried to break down and define the tomato, not in the name of science, but in the name of money.
At the end of the 19th-century, businesses, especially international businesses, were booming. During the Industrial Revolution, America saw a wave of not just different people and technologies, but also saw a whole array of products that were never available to them in the past. Imported foods from other countries surged into ports up and down the Atlantic. With a wave of immigrants from Italy, tomato imports were a booming and profitable commodity to sell.
The Jon Nix and Company imported tomatoes from Bermuda, Florida, and Virginia into the ports of New York City, yet all of the importing became a problem when the tomatoes were taxed. Since the company’s founding in 1836, there was never a problem with importing, but a new tariff law that passed in 1883 forced import taxes to be paid on all vegetables.
Jon Nix and Company refused to pay this new tax, arguing that botanically speaking, tomatoes were fruit and were exempt from this vegetable tariff. The New York State court case and the subsequent appeal didn’t resolve any issues, both prosecutors and defendants argued by using dictionary definitions, fighting over the semantics of fruits and vegetables.
Since the dictionary stand-off did little to clear things up, the legal battle found its way up to the Supreme Court which, despite not being unanimous, did not side with the fruit company. The Supreme Court agreed that yes on a scientific level tomatoes were fruits, but the application and culinary function of tomatoes was that of savory vegetables, saying that the general populous’ application defined a tomato, regardless of the science. At the end of the day, tomatoes, for reasons of state financial gains, ended up still being taxed.
How do you define tomatoes? Do you call tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable?