For those of you who don’t know, Australia has a pretty long history of being overprotective of their agricultural industry. Long story short, Australia introduced the cane toad to their ecosystem once, it ended up becoming a national pest … it was pretty bad. So now they’re pretty protective about their agriculture, to the point where Katy Perry‘s latest album, PRISM, has been named — I swear to gawd — a biohazard. HuffPo explains this …
The deluxe edition of Katy Perry’s album comes with seeds that fans are instructed to plant as a way “spread the light,” as Perry tweeted back on Oct. 17. The issue at hand for the Australian Department of Agriculture, however, stems from the seeds’ origins. As Billboard reports, the local edition of PRISM was made in Australia, and the seeds “are sourced from Western Australia.” Fans who purchase the album online, though, may not receive that specific pressing of “Prism,” meaning outside seeds could wind up in the country.
“Seeds or plant material of international origin may be a weed not present in Australia or the host of a plant pathogen of biosecurity concern,” a department spokesperson said in a statement to news.co.au. As a result, international copies of PRISM purchased by Australian residents may could be confiscated as potential biohazard material.
While I actually like the idea of encouraging people to grow plants and nurture life and all that, let’s be practical about this: selling seeds might not be the best idea in the world. And seriously, they did a bit on The Simpsons about this. It was on the one where Bart went to Australia! Everyone saw that episode! How did you miss that one?