[calcowgirl]

With all that farming in California, how come I can never buy a decent tomato?

[FOG724]

With all that farming in California, how come I can never buy a decent tomato?

There is no such thing as a decent tomato.

The only way to do that is to plant it yourself.

[NathanR]

Blame Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Union. Before him, tomatoes were picked by hand using Mexican stoop labor and the tomatoes were good. Once the union got involved, farmers developed tomatoes what could be picked by machine using fewer laborers.

[1rudeboy]

Because they are picked when they are green. Pet peeve of mine. The only way to get a decent tomato is to grow your own, or know someone who does.

[tiki]

Because they grow machine harvest tomatoes and pick them green and they ripen as they reach market. It is the same with most produce that's why you can't get a good peach or apricot nothing is left on the tree until it is ripe or it would be spoiled. When you pick them you don't know if they're going to NY or to the corner store and you pick them all at the same time.