I believe a lot of it is indirectly due to the Farm Workers Union as led by Cesar Chavez. He organized California farmworkers into a union to get higher wages and better working conditions for what used to be called ‘stoop labor’. Boycotts of grapes, lettuce and tomatoes were big deals in the late 60s and 70s. And he beat the “greedy farmers” down and won!
But then technology raised its ugly head. Harvesting machines were developed that could basically shake the tomatoes off of the plant and harvest them without the need of more expensive labor. Only problem with that was that the tomatoes were damaged by the machines, tomatoes being thin-skinned and all. So researchers at agricultural universities created tomatoes that could withstand the rough handling. Only problem was they didn’t have much in the way of flavor. But, hey they’re affordable!
So, just like cotton, people doing an unskilled, crappy job demanded more money for their labor, machines were invented to do their jobs, and now they sit back and collect welfare. Perhaps a cautionary tale for fast food workers.
You know paying pickers decent wages would only raise the retail price of a tomato a tiny little bit and the quality would be much higher and so worth it. Corporate America can f up anything. Even tomatoes.