If it's selling, we will sell it (or something that looks like it)

It wasn't so long ago the nation was mad for Kona coffee. Grown on the slopes of Hawai'i's mountains, drawing flavor from the rich, volcanic soil.

Blah, blah, blah...

People loved the exotic mystic - and the flavor wasn't bad either. Demand soared, and supply followed. Suddenly, Kona coffee was everywhere.

And then someone did the math on how much coffee was getting sold as Kona coffee - and how much acreage actually grew Kona coffee. They came a rather obvious conclusion: 2,000 measly acres in Hawaii simply could not grow that much Kona coffee.

The suppliers saw what was selling, and rushed to sell product that looked like the real article.

They've been doin' it since forever.

According to WaPo's Jane Black, they've done it with heirloom tomatoes as well.

Call me persnickety, but someone needs to take a stand here: "Heirloom" is not synonymous with "good."

...

In a 2007 article in the journal Sociologia Ruralis, Jennifer Jordan examined the pressing question of why a growing number of consumers had acquired a taste for $7-a-pound "bug-eaten, calloused, mottled and splitting tomatoes that may or may not taste good."

The answer, Jordan concluded, was that heirloom tomatoes had evolved into a "marker of distinction." The lumpy, imperfect fruit had become a kind of mascot for the good-food movement that is against industrial agriculture's embrace of pesticides, against the development of genetically modified foods, in favor of preserving small farms and in support of local and seasonal food.

...

Heirlooms' popularity took a toll on their taste, however. As farmers and supermarkets realized they could extract high prices for heirlooms, they increased production. And, in some cases, quality fell; hence the gorgeous but mealy and bland heirloom I bought last week.

Black states that she's having a quiet revolt against heirlooms. I think that's a bit much - but it's good of her to point out that heirlooms can be mass-produced pieces of crap, too.

Like the chef in the article says "If a tomato tastes good, it's a good tomato. Nothing else matters."