[permaculture-oceania] rare vegetables

[Mike Morris]

On 28/07/06, Harry Wykman <harrybw at iinet.net.au> wrote:

> I am Western Australian.  Though I appreciate the customs laws which
> apply to our state, I don't appreciate the effect that they have on the
> possibility of attaining more easily some of the rarer and often very
> useful vegetables.  I am wondering whether there are any on this list
> who know of places in WA where I might find things like Oca, potato
> onion, yacon, true arrowroot and other things found on places like the
> greenharvest website (www.*greenharvest*.com.au).  I don't think that it
> is a matter of these things not being in WA, just that they have the
> potential to tranfer disease if they travel accross borders, though it
> may be that they are not available at all.

I think it is also the possiblity of species becoming invasive aliens
in areas where they are not endemic.  For example, I believe that in
WA you guys have a problem with a lot of our South African species
that have become invasive, while simultaneously, we in SA have
problems with a lot of Australian species (particularly Acacias) that
have become rampant invaders.

OTOH, I suspect that a lot of the time regulations controlling the
movement of seed are put into place more to protect vested interests
than for sound environmental reasons.  In South Africa we have laws
requiring permits to import vegetable seed.  But the only people who
can, in reality, get permits are the Big Three seed companies.
Question (as an example):  When we already have a whole lot of Tomato
varieties being grown in the country, why are we forbidden to import
new (well, really old, heirloom) varieties?

Sorry for the rant! You pressed one of my buttons :-)  (Having just
received my latest order of new varieties of Turnips, Beets, some
Squashes and Cukes from the USA yesterday!  Thank god our customs
inspectors are largely clueless on this issue.)

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