March 01, 2006
Dangerous food
Another cheater blog entry ...
New Zealand and Australia are officially obsessed with "biosecurity." It comes with having a lot of agricultural earnings and being islands. For example, Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank was busted for bringing in an apple and orange from America without declaring them.
When you leave New Zealand they have lots of stern warnings about what not to bring home. Basically they give you the impression that to be on the safe side, don't bring back anything that was once alive in any form. Like wild rice. We saw this display about dangerous foreign agricultural [and cultural] items at Christchurch airport. What was particularly amusing was that one of the dangerous items not to bring home was Byerlys wild rice. This will only be semi-amusing if you're from the Twin Cities. Otherwise it will be even more dull.
Not being from Minnesota I'm not at all disturbed that their wild rice is banned in NZ.
Being from Tasmania however I am deeply troubled at seeing a tin of Tasmanian Leatherwood honey in that picture. Since the Leatherwood trees grow only in western Tasmania, that means milions of New Zealanders are being denied the chance to taste what is the world's most fanstastic, unique honey. Now I know why you guys are rucking and mauling all the time. Displaced Leatherwood honey deprivation.
Posted by: Dan Hill at March 1, 2006 06:13 PM