All the news that's fit to...*yawn*

Apples? We're down to beating up DND for their apple choices? Fer cryin' out loud...

Capt. Richard Chapman was training with army cadets at Camp Aldershot last weekend, a few minutes drive from some of the largest apple orchards in the country.

But when he pulled an apple out of his box lunch, supplied by the army, he figured he would find it was grown locally.

Instead, he found something with a lot more miles on it.

"It was right on the apple’s sticker: Product of New Zealand," the Woodville, Kings County, man said.

"It’s kind of silly. Here we are right in the Annapolis Valley, probably within eyesight of Scotian Gold, and we’re eating apples from New Zealand."

...

The Defence Department, which operates an army training centre in Aldershot, Kings County, said Monday morning it would look into the matter but didn’t provide further comment by press time.

Earlier in the day, a Defence Department spokesman said his department would look into how apple suppliers in the region are chosen.

Egad.

Two points spring immediately to mind.

First, the Department of National Defence does not exist purely to finance Canadian business interests. It is not - and should not be - a pork-barrel proposition. All other things being equal (though they seldom are), I'd prefer to see DND buying Canadian goods where the price and quality are equal to foreign competition. But when we start paying more for local stuff just because it's local, we get...well, the Iltis, for one example. Besides, the CF has been suffering along for literally decades on a budget that they cannot stretch any further to cover off all the various tasks they are assigned; asking them to do anything other than price/quality shop is anathema to me.

Second, if they think this is news, one wonders just how committed the reporter and his publisher are to buying locally. Ink, paper, computers and programs, printing presses, web space, staff cars - hell, pens and tape recorders and notebooks and Chronicle Herald name tags and swag for clients! If these and anything else it buys - no matter if it's as small and inexpensive as a freakin' apple, mind you - are local products, then go ahead and point the finger. If not, then shut up.

Really.