Tomato Abortion Decried

Aborted tomato, a photo by Taproot Garden on Flickr.

Today, pastor-turned-gardener Tim Diebel condemned the prenatal slaughter of a rose tomato as "horticultural barbarism" and called for a time of mourning. "In the garden I am an fervent 'right-to-life' advocate," Diebel acknowledged, "and the loss of even a single homegrown tomato is a tragedy."

The brutality occurred when the spinning twine of a power trimmer was allowed to veer out of control by its careless operator, cutting off at the ground this otherwise healthy and productive heirloom variety and all its nascent fruit.

"It is such a senseless, agonizing tragedy, just as the tomatoes were ready to come into their own," said Diebel, who vowed to investigate possible legislation that could put an end to such backyard abortions in the future.