Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe TRENTON, N.J., March 8 (UPI) -- The New Jersey Legislature has defied botanical convention by introducing a bill to adopt the tomato as the official state vegetable. Biologists consider the tomato a fruit, but the blueberry has already filled that official position in New Jersey. Advertisement The bill's sponsors cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an 1893 tax case that "the common language of the people" identifies the tomato as a vegetable, therefore making it a taxable import, the Trenton Star-Ledger reported. Fruit was not taxed at the time. "These are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish or meats, which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert," said Assemblyman Douglas Fisher, D-Cumberland, quoting the opinion.
