If I were to twist things as badly as you seem to do then a grapefruit would fall under the same restrictions. Keep on twisting.
It is the scientist in me that is objecting to calling a tomato a vegetable, which it is not.
The scientist in you should recognize that 'vetetable' is not a scientific term.
It has seeds and develop from the reproductive part of the plant, therefore botanically it is a fruit regardless of what the Supreme Court says.
So do cucumbers, does the scientist in you object to they being called a vegetable? Why doesn't the scientist in you object to potatoes and carrots being called vegetables instead of roots? Why doesn't the scientist in you insist that people refer to broccoli as a flower instead of a vegitable? Could it be that in all cases the people are correct, because 'vegetable' is a term that can embrace flowers, roots, fungus, and yes, even fruit?
IMO, if Congress or the regulatory agency wanted to tax tomato imports, they should have listed tomatoes as taxable rather than say "tax vegetables." The Supreme Court simply compounded the error.
OK, so what would be taxed as vegetables?
I agree. I don't think 'vetetable', whatever that is, is a scientific term either.
Why doesn't the scientist in you insist that people refer to broccoli as a flower instead of a vegitable?
A vegitable? What's a vegitable?
OK, so what would be taxed as vegetables?
Here's a definition of vegetable from the Definitions link I posted above. This is a food-based definition, I think, rather than an "animal, mineral, or vegetable" gross level of categorization.
A herbaceous (green and leaf like in appearance or texture) plant cultivated for an edible part, as roots, stems, leaves or flowers. Or you may say a vegetable is the edible stems, leaves, and roots of the plant.
Here's another not quite so careful a definition (Link):
A plant cultivated for an edible part, such as the root of the beet, the leaf of spinach, or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower.
Hmmm. By that definition anything cultivated for an edible part is a vegetable. But I didn't see tomato listed. Instead it listed the types of vegetables found in the other definition above. Didn't list any fruits.
So do cucumbers, does the scientist in you object to they being called a vegetable?
Funny you should ask about cucumbers. Actually the Cornell Department of Horticulture item I posted in 599 was about cucumbers. Here is the rest of that particular quote:
Q: Is a cucumber a fruit or a vegetable?
A: It is technically a fruit. From a botanical perspective, a fruit is the mature ovary of a plant, such as an apple, melon, cucumber, or tomato. From the common, every day "grocery store perspective," we tend to use the word fruit with respect to fruits eaten fresh as desserts - apples, peaches, cherries, etc. - and not to items cooked or used in salads. So, cucumbers tend to be lumped in with vegetables because of the way they are used (cooked and in salads), but botanists will call them fruits because they develop from the reproductive structures of plants. From the Cornell Department of Horticulture.
Apparently the scientist in me agrees with the botanists at the Cornell Department of Horticulture.