Evolution of Produce

     An article by Evan Deturk called "An 80,000 Year History of the Tomato" is about the history of how a common day tomato came to be how we know it today. The fruit/vegetable has a very long road of breeding to become what it is today, the red, mostly uniform, meaty produce that appears in every culture's food.

    Originally found in central and south America the tomato plant produced berries that were compared to the size of blueberries. They were tasteless and held no nutritional value. This was roughly estimated to be 80,000 years ago. Once they were domesticated, they spread rapidly through trade routes that covered all of Europe and Spain. Spanish and Italian cuisine immediately integrated the tomato into their foods. However, Britian had suspicion of the new food that it may be poisonous, so the tomato was later introduced to British and American cooking. Later in 1870 in America, Alaxander Livingston bred the first commercialized tomato. His practices continued for hundreds of years, his company at one point produced over half of America's tomatoes. When his time passed his practices continued but were constantly evolving to produce meatier, more nutrient supplying tomatoes. Deturk states, "Extensive breeding programs created the first domesticated tomatoes, and subsequently shaped them into a food with largely uniform qualities that could be mass produced." Many fruits and vegetables that are commonly used today have been through the very particular breeding process. All of them in the wild, were very small and tasteless, some were starchy, but all of them were impossible to eat. The breeding took specific genes and mutated them to make meatier more nutrition packed produce.

    Even today produce is continuing to evolve through experimentation with different genesis being mixed together. A viable example being the purple tomato made in 2023. The regular production tomato was mixed with a snap dragon creating the moderate sized, purple fleshed tomato that's reported to be dense with nutrients. From small tasteless plants to larger, meatier produce, food is constantly changing to become bigger and better.

Work Cited

Deturk, Evan. “An 80,000-Year History of the Tomato.” The Works in Progress Newsletter, 7 May 2025, www.worksinprogress.news/p/an-80000-year-history-of-the-tomato.