Is he REALLY ugly? Or is he just misunderstood? That is the question the top European Commission for Agriculture had to ask themselves. Starting this July 1st, 20 year old food laws will be lifted in the EU meaning that irregular fruit and vegetables like Mr. Cuddly the tomato (above) will begin being sold again.
The change in laws is welcomed by market operators all over Europe as they get more freedom to sell fruits and vegetables with a little more, character and pizazz. I'm sure market vendors and market shoppers alike will be glad to see more curvy cucumbers, gnarly carrots and lumpy tomatoes for sale in weeks to come.
It was getting to a point where people would walk down the aisle and see the same vegetable over and over again. They never even had to squeeze their fruits to check for freshness, shopping was no longer a challenge or even remotely interesting. With the laws in place for 20 years variety was falling off the shelves it would not long before certain vegetables such as bell-peppers were deemed to wild to be sold by European Agricultural Standards.
Aside from the inherent cost benefit to selling these foods and not letting them go to waste and the benefit of seeing more variety in the stores there is also a clear environmental benefit to selling deformed fruits and vegetables. In a time of economic and environmental struggle this is the only choice, allowing farmers to produce more cash-crop and allowing consumers to purchase "ugly" veggies for less. If you ask me, there's nothing ugly about these fruits. Okay, maybe Mr. Cuddly but come now, we all have limits.
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