Answer is no. It's several paragraphs of explanation for the full story but in brief, eggplant and melon seeds that ripen on Tas do not exist in mainland sources. Hybrid peppers do enormously better in Tas but . . . at least we do have some acceptable ops we can propagate (with low seed yields due to cool conditions). And Tas Q restricts seed imports from mainland companies as much as it does from foreign sources. To get a full range of cauliflower varieties that allow harvesting from May through the end of October next, I must go to England for seed. I can get some from Cascadia, but not the full range. There's a small cabbage that overwinters and always makes nice heads in spring. Mainland op brussels sprout varieties are rubbish and hybrids aren't available. These can be sourced in the USA; many more varieties are found in the UK. Onions, etc. Late broccoli hybrids for winter production; not in mainland garden seed offerings, etc. Mr. Fothergills has some good stuff.
Look Lloyd, in a sane world, most Australians would buy their seed from the States. Victorians and South Australians in the greener parts would buy from NE USA. New South Wales folks would buy from companies in Pennsylvania . . . . Queenslanders would buy from Park, in South Carolina. They would pay no more, including exchange and shipping, for first class seed, than they pay now for junk.
But Quarantine is running a protection racket. And it's a very effective racket. They get lots of self importance, secure jobs, cute little sniffer dogs to keep them company, new state cars to drive around in, an ever expanding work force, an ever expanding mandate to protect us from an ever increasing list of threats. Terrorism in another guise. I don't see how Q could possibly succeed at protecting this continent from a long list of unwanted creatures, not succeed over the next few hundred years, assuming globalization continues. So what inevitably must happen, is that these horrors will get through, one at a time, I think if "contamination" happens in this manner, that the pests will cause the most damage possible.
But like everything government does, there are undesirable, unintended consequences. Like every gardener in Australia pays a lot more for seed of much lower quality, with much less choice, than the world standard.
Steve
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Posted by: "Steve Solomon" stsolomo@soilandhealth.org stsolomo
Date: Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:49 pm ((PDT))
Isn't life a joke sometimes! Steve Solomon, high class seedsman, retired,
migrated to Tasmania, a place where there was plenty of liberty and more
tranquility. Decent soil and excellent year round gardening weather. Steve
Solomon, the ethical seedsman.
So what happens? Decent seed is not available--no surprise. Like Oregon was
when I first arrived. So I organize two local seed companies (only wanted
one), in order to provide decent garden seed. I mean, honest, quality seed
like what is offered by Johnny's, High Mowing, West Coast and Territorial,
is not available to mainland gardeners either. That's thanks to Australia
Quarantine, whose restrictions act like a highly protective tariff shielding
a non-competitive low-quality market. Oh, it is still possible for mainland
gardeners to import seeds for most species, but it is awkward and a bit
intimidating.
But I don't quite live in Australia. Tasmania is its own country. We are
afflicted by our own Quarantine; it has Tassie rules in addition to AQIS's
rules. Tassie is going for "clean and green", non GMO, etc. And our Q has
long facilitated our farmers exporting into markets that would exclude them
if it but could, but under the rules of "free trade," they can only justify
exclusions on the grounds of biosecurity, and Tassie can PROVE the island is
free of a few diseases that justify exclusion. To maintain officially
certified disease-free status, imports of other species are
restricted--others in addition to those that AQIS restricts. Putting the
squeeze on Allium and solanum seed imports could have been managed, except
that lately, Q has begun restricting even more species, like carrot, because
Bejo Zaden is now producing much carrot seed on TAS. Bigtime. Major
investment in seed handling machinery, buildings, employees, and etc. Etc. I
hear also pumpkins, and who knows what's next.
So here is me, a seedsman, being PREVENTED from legally importing decent
seed and having to confront a criminal suppression, a situation where for
many species, no seed may be brought in without paying huge fees and
providing all sorts of phytosanitary certs--like I mean the two little
Tassie garden seed companies I got going say it costs them $2,500 to import
one packet of pepper seed. That's a prohibition, not a restriction.
In response, I am tempted to get political, but I hate that stuff. I don't
think I could lobby politicians, reporters, activists, etc. Nor could I
organize protests. I could also say stuff you all, and just take care of
self. I have a contact on the mainland who would be pleased to receive no
end of overseas seed orders on my behalf and then forward the seeds on
without declaring the parcel contains seeds.Tas Quarantine would never know.
I could smuggle using several strategies and never get busted--and if I did
. . . so what! Pay a fine? Lose my material? But that's a cop out.
Probably the ethical solution is for me to inspire and organize a network of
collaborating seed growers, all living on Tassie. But that is really a tough
row to hoe if your intention is to have high quality seed result, and not
the disgusting stuff currently offered by Australia's homestead seed
producing network. I mean, to have honestly productive seed to sell, any
company pimping little growers would have to have the highest ethics! Be
willing to spend infinite time educating its network and be willing to
refuse to sell rubbish, no matter the hang-dog bad luck story the grower is
telling. They would have to grow out nearly every seed lot. It would be real
WORK, something many Australians do not want to know about--especially the
ex-mainland "sea changers," who talk the walk but prefer socializing over a
three course lunch with wine. The one's we need are the old timey native
rural Taswegians with farming experience and big gardens.
Wouldn't it be a joke if I ended up back in the seed biz at age 72! Right
there in the footsteps of my Grandpa Willie, who sold his hardware store at
age 65 and retired, and then bought it back for peanuts at age 73 (after the
buyers had run it into the ground), and worked for another seven plus years.
Willie didn't know what else to do with his life. It wouldn't be the sort of
seed biz I was in before, but the sort I have long scorned. Like I said, a
joke.
As they say in the Royal Manticorian (Space) Navy when things get rough: "if
you can't take a joke, why did you join the navy?"
Steve
Informative x 3
Like x 1
