(Photo: Tess Watson)
Although haggis may be found in the wild and hunted in Scotland and some parts of northern England, it is not native to the United States and attempts to introduce it have failed.
For those of us in the States who enjoy the refined taste of haggis, the 1971 federal ban on the importation of this Scottish delicacy has long been a source of frustration. But now the US is considering dropping the ban, provided that haggis manufacturers remove one essential ingredient from the dish: sheep lungs. The BBC reports on the saintly labors of the Scottish official Richard Lochhead:
The rural affairs secretary told the BBC: "Tens of millions of Americans want to enjoy Scotland's national dish. Now it may be that we'd have to tweak the recipe for haggis to get into the US market, because some of the ingredients - such as sheep lungs - have been banned since 1971.
"But I think our own producers here in Scotland are up for tweaking the recipe so that US customers can still get as close as possible to the real thing.
Perhaps we will finally see the end of this irrational Scotophobic prohibition.
-via Dave Barry