Let me explain this one because Rolling Stone and other mags got it all wrong. I couldn’t understand their reasoning, Katy Perry’s new album, ‘Prism’ was declared a potential biohazard in Australia because the deluxe packaging included a packet of harmless local Swan River daisy seeds? It didn’t make any sense! If the seeds were seeds of a local plant, found in Western Australia, how could they represent a danger?
So it’s not exactly the case, the deluxe version of her album contains seeds, apparently incorporated in handmade paper, and Australians have expressed some concern as the seeds may be a weed foreign to Australia and so a plant that could raise some biological security concern. Thus, albums bought in Australia have replaced the potential ‘bad seeds’ by Swan River daisy seeds, an Australian native. Still, Australians are still concerned by albums bought overseas as they may contain the exogenous (and so bad) seeds. Now it makes sense!
A spokeperson for the department of agriculture told the Australian News: ‘Seeds or plant material of international origin may be a weed not present in Australia or the host of a plant pathogen of bio-security concern. Our bio-security officers at international airports, seaports and mail centres [sic] assess the risks associated with various items every day and are well-trained in making informed decisions about whether items could be of bio-security concern.’
Katy has encouraged her fans to plant the paper containing the seeds to ‘spread the light’, sure a noble gesture although totally new-age-y bullshit, but apparently, this girl doesn’t understand how fragile an ecosystem can be, especially Australia which has been isolated from the rest of the continents for hundreds of millions of years. There have been numerous examples in the past which have exposed Australia to ecological disasters, like the introduction of rabbits whose population has reached billions these days, so any foreign species has to be closely monitored!
The funny thing in the story is the name of Katy Perry being now associated with bio-security-bio-hazard just because of an apparently harmless seed package! And it’s a shame because she had a nice idea, for once it wasn’t something meretricious or self-centered or associated with a bra shooting fireworks or milkshake, so too bad for Katy it turned this way.