Procacci Brothers Sales Corp., seeking to produce a more flavorful tomato, came up with a variety it calls the “UglyRipe”. Would consumers like its flavor and be willing to overlook its appearance? Until recently they didn’t have the choice. The UglyRipe ran afoul of the Department of Agriculture’s “standard” for the appearance of tomatoes from Florida. Bloomberg reporter Cindy Skrzycki writes:

Those specifications were set in 1955 to assure the quality and uniformity of the Florida round tomato. Thus, Procacci's pride couldn't be sold outside Florida in the prime winter growing season, from October to June. The arbiter of compliance with the grading standard is the Florida Tomato Committee, a dozen growers who supervise most of the $500-million-a-year Florida fresh tomato industry. The committee decides what gets shipped out of the regulated tomato-growing area and what merits an exemption from the standard.

As Milton Friedman argued with respect to medical licensing, compulsory standards in fact have nothing to do with assuring quality and uniformity – for that, non-compulsory certification is sufficient. In this case, non-compulsory certification would mean that consumers who want tomatoes the shape (and flavor?) of red tennis balls could look for the sticker “certified round by the Florida Tomato Committee”. Homelier tomatoes, without the sticker, could compete from the next produce bin. Licensing or compulsory standards have everything to do with restricting competition for the benefit of incumbents. The Florida Tomato Committee acted as an industry cartel to suppress competition along non-price dimensions.

After much lobbying, the Department of Agriculture last month found a loophole through which it could give UglyRipe an exemption from the shape standard. Here’s a radical idea: why not abolish the federal standard? Let any firm sell misshapen tomatoes, and let consumers choose according to their own standards. And let the Florida Tomato Committee provide as much sticker information as its members are willing to pay for.