Florida Tomatoes In Season

[ponto]

Kentucky tomato growers are bitting the bullet as more Kentucky processors and canners are buying produce from out of state.

A model program for small farmers is the Kentucky Proud (http://www.kyproud.com/) Program, but as local value added businesses increase in size, they lose the ability to buy great tasting tomatoes from Kentucky growers.

What starts out as a good idea, goes bad when raw products are not being grown year round in Kentucky to supply these processors.

Somewhere along the line, in an effort to be the biggest and best, these businesses can no longer say they use only Kentucky grown produce to make their product.

It is time for small farmers across the Commonwealth to gear up to supply the processors with the product they need.

Why is this a problem ? Aren't all tomatoes the same?

Just what gets sent out of state is governed by the Florida Tomato Committee, and they demand tomatoes that are round and smooth. Taste is not a factor.

Read More (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=352424&page=1)

[tkcomer]

Well, Kentucky hasn’t figured out a way to grow tomatoes in the winter. Maybe global warming will help extend the season. But it should be cheaper to buy KY ‘maters in the summer than to ship them in. Not as bad as the catfish farmers had a few years ago. Many farmers and producers went under. I can’t remember the exact prices, but the fish co-op need a minimum $1 a pound to turn a profit. The US started allowing imported catfish meat from Viet Nam and Cambodia. At 75 cents a pound. The fish farmers and co-ops couldn’t compete at those prices. Meanwhile, that meat sold for 4 to 6 dollars a pound in stores. Somebody made some serious money as the farmers and co-ops went under.