No More Maple Syrup Factory Tours, Thanks to Terrorism Threat

August 30, 2010 at 10:36 AM | by JetSetCD | Comments (0)

Here is the most ridiculous news you will probably hear all day: the press reported earlier this month that Vermont's popular Maple Grove Farms factory tour was shut down due to terrorism concerns. Whoa, what?

The Rutland Herald attempts to make sense of this: "the company, the largest maple syrup wholesaler in the nation, had to shutter the tour as a result of 'food-defense' concerns that have sprouted since terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., nearly nine years ago." Apparently it's taken nine years for the factory to figure out that it'd cost them more than it's worth to retrofit the factory so that visitors are kept away from machinery. So they're just not allowed at all.

Frank Busta, director emeritus of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, says the new guidelines aren�t an overreaction.
'Let me paint you a scenario,' he says. 'If someone got to a vulnerable location and got something into 1,000 gallons of maple syrup that went out in six-ounce bottles, and that got distributed rapidly in some big supermarket chain � wow. What a catastrophe.'

We here at Jaunted are huge advocates of factory tours. We always say why not become an informed consumer while on vacation? And hey, usually either the tour is free or there's free stuff included. If "terrorists" are going to take away our maple syrup factory tours, they can have 'em, just so long as they don't touch the precious, precious Ben & Jerry's Factory Tour.

See what other factory tours are still open to tourists with our list here.

[Photo: Tripadvisor]

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