apples has highlighted Australia's strict trade-protectionist quarantine

policies. Researchers at the Australian School of Business say keeping

out foreign produce may address competition comfort levels for industry,

but often the real losers are consumers. Policymakers must more

carefully weigh the benefits of imports against the perceived threats,

they insist. Mad cow disease is definitely not worth trifling with, but

the cost of an occasional outbreak of fruit-borne disease is far

outstripped by the value of benefits that imports bring to consumers.

There's food for thought!