Is your complaint that they taste bad because they're out of season? Maybe you could be a little clearer still; the connection you're claiming between the labeling of the bin and the flavor of the tomatoes remains obscure.
A "real" tomato does not ship well. It is delicate, prone to bruising, and has a limited shelf-life after it reaches peak ripeness. It is a marvelous treat, but unless you grow your own you will never have a great tomato and unless you have access to a source like a farmers market or quality produce department you will never even know a "good" tomato.
The tomato you see in the bin at a major supermarket chain was picked when it was green and hard as an apple. To get it to the soft consistency and reddish color you expect it was bathed in ethylene gas during shipment or while it was sitting around in a warehouse somewhere. This gas causes the tomato to soften and turn red, but it does not cause the tomato to create the sweet sugars and pleasant consistency that are the hallmarks of a freshly picked ripe tomato. It is this waxy/mealy consistency of a gassed mass-market tomato that was being noted.
I hear you on the differences. I've had tomatoes from my mom's garden, and they're a completely different beast than what one finds in the supermarket. With that said, supermarket romas are my snack of choice: tasty, affordable, healthy. Even in the dead of winter when they're all beat up and expensive. I love them and they keep me away from candy bars. :)
If you don't like "mass market" tomatoes, you don't have to buy them. But I do and I will. Implying that I'm ignorant for my choice or that the world would be a better place if my snack of choice didn't exist doesn't strike me as kindness. Seems more likely to be rooted in pride.
Food evangelists always strike me as pride all dressed up as virtue, anyway. If they were really out to make the world a better place, shouldn't they be building technology, fighting for just laws, healing the sick and poor, that kind of thing? Children are starving in Africa and they're bothering rich people about not eating sufficiently expensive tomatoes.
