Too many Tomatoes?

It is interesting to hear comments about modern grocery stores and the amazing variety that they represent. Compared to what has gone before, it is true that there are many choices of items. It is also true that this is the tip of the iceberg (lettuce that is). There are 3,000 to 4,000 types of tomatoes and incredible numbers of other fruits, herbs, vegetables and many other items. This does not include the amazing number of processed foods.

The question is that once you get past the dozen or so types of chiles, tomatoes, etc. with which we are all familiar or that are popular in some major region of the world, what happens to the rest. Are these all just some cultivar that 10 people on an experimental farm have tried or that live only in a seed bank. Maybe these are just a piece of fiction and they don't really exist. After all, who has really seen all of these varieties.


I am in the business of working with heirloom tomatoes and doubt that I have seen more than 150 to 200 varieties of tomatoes. I am not sure that I have even tasted 100 varieties of chiles.


I truly believe that if people could taste all of these, many would. That would be great if you could taste thousands of tomatoes and tell the suppliers that your favorite is Green Zebra and then your local store carried that tomato. This seems unlikely to happen any time soon. Logistically I can't figure out how this could happen, but technology and innovation have solved many other problems. If this whole subject interests you, check out the book The Long Tail. Since you are not choosing your chiles and there are chiles (and other items) at the store, how are these items getting selected?

Are there culinary experts and tasting panels out there finding the most delicious foods for you? No, that is not happening. Are the beneficial suppliers of the world getting together and figuring out which items are the tastiest? Maybe not this one either. Are the suppliers figuring out which products they can sell at the highest profit that will also help grow the market for them? Getting close. Is this dictated to them partly by the seed suppliers and suppliers of other inputs, partly by the media, partly by the distributors and retailers and partly by focus groups? This sounds like the reality I know. The retailers and distributors lay out their basic requirements to have a little bit of variety. The growers then focus on which tomatoes can be machine harvested and transported without much loss and meet the requirements.


Is all of this shaped by some basic biases? Yes and the main bias is only innovate/change as much as you have to. Why would the big suppliers go out and really take big risks? They already are making a fortune. They can let little suppliers take the big risks. If a little supplier does well, they can buy the company or squash them with their big budget and control of the distribution channel.

Of course there are well intentioned suppliers out there who really are looking out for consumers and care deeply about flavor. One such person is a guy I know named Gary Ibsen. He grows over 500 heirloom tomato varieties and his main goal is to keep these great varieties alive for people to enjoy. You can find him at www.tomatofest.com