"Australia" news and stories

As if it weren't hard enough to dissuade your children from billboards and television ads touting fast food, a new tactic has entered the ad world. Fast food chains in Australia have begun emailing free-food vouchers to kids under 12. But could it happen here?

This "direct mail" marketing campaign from Australia-based chains Hungry Jack and Taco Bill strategically bypasses parents with an online "Kids Club," where children can register to receive "free meals on their birthdays, vouchers for free ice cream" and finger puppets, reports The Daily Telegraph. And you'd better believe health organizations went after them.

Under the umbrella of The Obesity Policy Coalition, the prosecuting organizations include: The World Health Organization, Diabetes Australia, VicHealth and Cancer Council of Victoria. But when they called on the Federal Government "to amend the Privacy Act to outlaw direct mail advertising to children," the Feds said children were already protected by spam laws, reports the Telegraph.

Jane Martin, the coalition's senior public officer, believes no such thing. And, really, if that were true, wouldn't the chains stop sending the mail?

Tomorrow marks Australia Day, the country's official national birthday, or basically the Aussie equivalent of the 4th of July. And just like in the U.S., most Aussies will spend the day at the beach or yes, having a barbecue. (Remember, Australia's seasons are the exact opposite of ours, so they're in mid-summer, not dreary winter.)

Heathe St.Clair, who is the genial owner of three Aussie restaurants in New York, including the Sunburnt Cow, thinks Australian cuisine is defined by its use of fresh and high-quality produce and letting the flavors speak for themselves.

"When people ask me to describe Australian cuisine, I always say we are the thieves of the culinary world," he explained. "We mix and match. On my menus, I've got Asian influences, Middle Eastern, Italian, Greek and Mediterranean. When I'm cooking I'm always taking from other culinary traditions and making them my own."

Heigh "ho" indeed.

An Australian beer advertisement has reportedly ticked off Disney because it features a Snow White lookalike lying in bed blowing smoke rings with seven undressed dwarves. The ad campaign for Jamieson Brewery's Raspberry Ale was created by the Australian advertising agency The Foundry to promote the beer as "anything but sweet" with a maiden they call "Ho White" and seven dwarves.

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Turkish Cucumbers. Photo: beautifulcataya, Flickr

Twelve separate cucumber thefts have put Australian police in a pickle.

According to ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), cucumber capers have targeted market farmers in Adelaide over the past three months, stealing more than $10,000 worth of the popular vegetable.

"It's certainly a unique theft," Chief Inspector Kym Zander told ABC.

Few leads are reported at this point, but police are speculating as to all possible motives, including the case of a jealous farmer.

"We're looking at the possibility that it may be a grower that's had a failed crop and he's substituting through theft," Zander said.

Police do believe the timing of the thefts shows the thieves are in the know.

"Somebody has the knowledge that cucumbers are being picked at the appropriate time, they're being stored in boxes, buckets or bags -- and overnight the thefts are occurring," Zander tells ABC News reporter Pete McDonald.

Even if there was a lead, Zander admits it is hard to determine which cucumbers are the stolen ones.

Embezzled cukes could be sold right under investigator's noses at local grocery stores and markets, as there is no way to detect a cucumber's origin.

As anybody who has been reading Slashfood for a while can attest, one of our collective sore points is the dreaded high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In general, we tend to blame this dietary crime against humanity on the corn industry, which pushes the vile concoction on us like a particularly unscrupulous crack dealer.

However, in the broader scheme of things, it's also worth noting that the corn growers of America share the guilt with several other parties. For example, while they make the dreaded stuff, they don't force manufacturers to use it or consumers to buy it. In a similar vein, nobody is forcing the federal government to subsidize America's corn crop, which makes the stuff unbelievably cheap. Somewhere between the endless struggle to reduce manufacturing costs and the desperate search for less expensive foods, we all have to admit to some level of complicity in this culinary disaster.

With this sort of system-wide perspective in mind, Australia recently revised its national dietary guidelines, stressing greener, more sustainable, and healthier food. In many ways, this represents a concerted effort to change the entire culinary culture of a country, an incredibly ambitious goal. Presumably, as the country reconsiders its standards for growth, harvesting, transport, and consumption of foods, it will become easier for consumer to make healthy, economical, and ethical food choices.

As the land down under moves forward in this quest, hopefully America will follow its lead!