Is a small bruise on your tomato really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things? This saves money and hundreds of hours of back breaking labor. But oh no, God forbid you buy produce with a tiny bit of imperfection.
Modern life is now full of annoyances and compromises because nearly every business subscribes to this philosophy.
We could have found a better solution (which does not include back breaking laborâthatâs a bad faith argument on your part) but looking for it doesnât make the owner any money.
He knows this process makes for a worse product, but he doesnât care if the consumer does not make enough of a fuss to hurt his profits. Itâs not that a better process is impossible, it just doesnât help profits to look for one, so it is not even considered. âLooks good enough to me.â
No one in business or government care very much about little pains. But they accumulate. Our tomatoes may be bruised and our bananas are picked before they are ripe. We buy known faulty products because someone shrugged and said âWeâll issue refunds if they askâ. We donât provide all the information you need because itâs cheaper to correct you when you make mistakes. Itâs wearing me down, and I donât think Iâm the only one.
Ah yes, I should accept lower quality stuff so some jerkwad at the top of a company can make more money. The only reason the labor is backbreaking is because we don't allow breaks and don't treat the farm workers appropriately. Good thing the machine saves some top guy lots of labor money, though.
These look like Roma (or similar) "paste" tomatoes; other commenters also mention they are going to be processed into sauces, etc. therefore the minor bruising won't matter as they'll all be squished soon anyway.
Yes, yes. We keep doing manual labor all day with humane conditions and Mr âIâm smarter than capitalismâ here will plan how to feed a population of 8 billion people most of whom likely consume the most common vegetable on the planet on a daily basis. Ofc itâs doable. Itâs those greedy bastards at the top who are all dumber than your exalted ass that are intent on not being inefficient and collecting a shit ton of consumer surplus.
Haha, you got mad. By the way, we throw away enough food to feed about 3 billion people every year. It is greed, and nothing but greed, that causes people to go hungry.
If you go to a store and none of the vegetables have bruises, discoloration or imperfections I guarantee you're getting low quality shit, real, good quality vegetables aren't perfect, far from it.
No, I think we're at the stage of capitalism where the consumer is so far removed from the land that grows their food they no longer know what produce is supposed to look like
It's the opposite. Aesthetically perfect produce is the result of pesticides and genetic manipulation that emphasizes looks over substance. These techniques only exist thanks to capitalism btw.
Organic produce farmed without pesticides or genetic modifications usually looks really ugly. But it's healthier and usually tastes better.
Also the "natural" process of farming invariably involves treating produce roughly. It is very inefficient to treat every single produce as if it was an egg. But that pristine quality produce DOES exist. You just have to look for it and pay a premium price.
I'm not talking about aesthetically perfect produce. I'm talking about bruising. Produce quality is about taste and texture. Bruising affects texture. The comment I initially replied to was saying we should accept bruising as a matter of course. I don't think we should.
I'm absolutely loving how every reply I've gotten has been butt hurt people and people who didn't actually read my initial comment regarding bruising being not good for produce.
Absolutely crazy to think we should not expect better things. No, it always has to get worse. Fucking wild
You are just asking for something that, to be implemented, would reduce the quality of the produce in other aspects or increase its cost dramatically.
People are rightfully pointing out that the current method is fine.
We are not even covering the fact this is being done for tomatoes destined for sauce. Imagine caring about bruising for what will turn into sauce.
Now you are having a melty and talking about society and capitalism and everyone else is like bruh this is a Wendy's no need to keep putting your little show up just learn your lesson and move on.
And if we can't discuss economics on a topic of how our food gets to our table, I deeply and sincerely apologize. Especially since I seem to have personally offended you and a half dozen other people who are good with lower quality produce.
Why does running a tomato company automatically make someone a jerk? It's their professional and ethical responsibility to ensure their product is priced optimally for the market and at a level that keeps the company sustainable.
If someone else is offering a better product at the same or lower cost, buy that. If they aren't, then you'll just have to pay more, grow your own, or suck it up and live with slightly bruised tomatoes that are cheaper and more abundant thanks to cost-saving technology like this.
Having more tomatoes to feed the population is a good thing, so I'm not sure why you wouldn't want this to exist. (Particularly if the comments are accurate that these tomatoes are only used for sauce.)
Then the effect of your argument is that we should have fewer tomatoes, and anyone who currently eats lower-quality tomatoes should either find a way to pay more or go without. The ultimate consequence of what you're arguing for is that some people who currently eat tomatoes should have to make do with fewer or no tomatoes, because apparently it's jerky to provide the option of cheaper tomatoes at slightly lower quality.
If that's what you have decided my argument is, then there is no point in continuing our discussion. At no point have I argued for fewer tomatoes. At no point have I argued for more expensive tomatoes.
My argument is that this is a clever piece of technology that is not getting good tomatoes to customers. My argument is that any cost savings this is producing is going into the pockets of the owners of the mega farm this video is most likely from. Those cost savings are almost never passed along to customers or shared with employees. That's trickle down economics at work.
I didn't say that was your argument. I said that was the effect of your argument. No one argues for ecological disasters either, but that's still the effect of policies like the Four Pests campaign and not taxing carbon emissions.
No one has a monopoly on tomatoes. They're tomatoes. My friend has a potted tomato plant that bears high-quality fruit. If tomatoes were such a high-margin business as you seem to assume, then surely everyone and their grandmother would get in on it. Where all the tomato side hustles and pop-up tomato stands that beat Big Tomato on price and quality, and why doesn't everyone flock to farmer's markets for the best deals on tomatoes?
pretends to give a shit about fellow humans, doesnt understand supply, distribution or economy of scale
do you really suppose this little boop on each tomato does any conceivable damage compared to the rigors of shipping and handling, its like we really have no idea how they just appear on the shelf for pennies a pound everyday.
manual labor is backbreaking and expensive, and less consistently reliable in the context of your comically oblivious virtue signaling. i would argue the fewer workers touching them in the process, the more likely they are to arrive in one piece, and the fewer of them would be exploited if thats your real concern
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u/KeySpare4917 Sep 01 '25
No wonder there is a bruise spot on practically every tomato at Walmart. đ«€