You speak too soon...the virus has been devastating producers across North America, and far from licked....it could well still take out the 3 big producers, and if that happens, the shortages will be extreme and all over.
Yes...should Ghanns and/or Armstrong go down, it would be disastrous.
It is a bit extreme, but it is also understandable....the government is strict on all potential plant pests...we have a lot of agriculture, forestry, etc, and erring on the side of caution seems a good way to avoid an epidemic like the pine beetle. Where they fail is in not doing the needed testing to eliminate species as non-threats, as 90%+ of roach species would be.
Very different here. The bug laws are in place by our Agricultural ministry (and federal statutes are very difficult to change)...and their main concern is protecting our vast agri-industry. What needs doing are studies on various species showing them to be a non-threat....the framework is in place, but the studies take time and money, and the CFIA has far more pressing and important matters to spend their resources on. Now, a private citizen could fund such a study, but finding someone to pony up a few grand so that a relatively small number of people can culture roaches, is a hard sell. We have PIJAC up here, which is somewhat similar to USARK, but this is not only outside their purview, but of zero interest to them.
