I was watching the news this week, which does little more than infuriate me these days, and imagine my surprise to learn that Americans are putting our own science to use to reverse a trend that our own science created: addressing taste deprivation in the common tomato due to genomic breeding that has selected size over substance. Only in America!
It seems that as the tomato has grown larger through these past five decades, the water content has been upped at the expense of a tomatoes' taste. It would be much like watering down your favorite 12 ounce pop with a skill set that increased volume without adding sugar -- or more to the point for a coffee snob like myself -- adding an extra four ounces of water to a pot without ever touching the coffee content. Yuk!
Apparently, tomato connoisseurs around the world have noticed the change and are working on a solution in cross breeding. That's all fine and dandy, but what stood out in the CBS report to me was the fact that America was the #2 producer in the world of red, luscious, hamburger goodness. The question emerged regarding who was in fact the #1 producer of tomatoes.
Well, no surprise here when I did my own digging -- it's China.
It only makes sense from a square acreage standpoint, but I was still surprised to learn that they had us beat about 5 to 1 on tomato production. All of that would be but a curious factoid were it not for the Trump administration's blatant war on free trade. On the front lines of that battle is China.
I confess that what any of it means to me as an American is beside the point. It is at the bedrock of reality a reminder of what globalization means to our economy. In a world of import taxes and trade barriers, we're left with the reality that someone else does something better than us.... at least for now. Not only do they surpass us, but they do so at a ratio of 5 to 1, an unacceptable set of odds by any standard in a competitive, capitalist society.
Compounded to the complete and total beating we are taking in the tomato industry comes the importance of a now hyper-aggressive FDA examination of what we're sticking in our bodies. By tightening the noose on trade, Trump stands to affect much more than the auto industry or "Happy Meal" toys. At its root (no pun intended) comes the question of what we put in our bodies by way of food stuff too.
Higher tariffs can easily lead to cutting corners, as anyone in a for-profit business can attest. The overall quality of the tomato stands to weaken, not strengthen, under Trump's alternatively fictitious tutelage. All that really means to me is a weakening of the tomato and the creation of one that is far less worthy of consumption, thereby replacing it with one far more apt to be thrown in the next protest.
Any educated fool can tell you of the benefits of trade. It takes something far more rotten and akin to ignorance to tell us that we'll all be just fine. The problem is I've seen a good many of your thumbs and you grow with about the same commonality that you cook. Unless you're ready to garden yourself and learn the craft, we're on a path as a country to continue the watering down, both literally and figuratively.
But let's be real honest for just a second.
Watering down is what we do best. We've even perfected the task to 140 characters and a little devil we call Twitter. America first, baby!
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