The Florida Tomato Committee (FTC) has left out some important information that consumers should know when learning about the plight of our UglyRipe™ tomato.

Let's start with some basics. The Florida Round tomato is a particular variety of tomato that the growers that make up the committee seek to protect. They bred the Florida Round tomatoes for shape. We bred an Heirloom variety tomato - an entirely different type of tomato - for its taste. Heirloom tomatoes will never be round, nor do consumers care if they are round.

Unfortunately, the standards created by the FTC do not take taste into consideration, and instead focus on shape. So the Florida Tomato Committee is imposing a ridiculous standard that we can only meet by throwing out at least 7 of 10 very tasty tomatoes. That's wasteful, and the consumer is the loser.

Prior to our bringing UglyRipes in for grading (to measure how well we met their shape standards), we remove about 60 percent of all tomatoes. These are the UglyRipes that are even too ugly for us to show the inspectors! But that's the point at which the FTC, in its statement to you, is only beginning to tell the story. At that point, about 70 percent met the shape standard. But 70 percent is not good enough to meet the shape standard set by the FTC. Fully 90 percent need to meet that standard. So at that point, we'd need to throw out an additional 20 percent of tomatoes in order to make grade. Basically, we are required to throw out nearly seven tomatoes just to save three that comply with FTC standards, all so that consumers will see round tomatoes coming from Florida.

But more importantly, the FTC has no business holding a tomato bred for taste against a standard designed to for shape. Cherry tomatoes will never be large; Roma tomatoes will never be round - so the FTC does not govern them. Our tomatoes will never be round - nor should they be either. While its true to say that the FTC has never banned our tomato, they've made it impossible to bring to market by holding our tomato to a standard that it will never meet, thus having the same effect as a ban.

Ironically, the FTC is tasked with giving consumers the tomatoes they want. We've received hundreds of letters from consumers who want our tasty tomato and don't care about its shape. The FTC has lost sight of its mission.

If you agree, we ask that you write your Member of Congress to ask that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Federal Marketing Order No. 966 no longer apply to the UglyRipes. More information is available at www.uglyripe.com.