This story is being used on the BBC News 24 rolling news channel today as a "human interest" piece. The curious element to this is below the fold.
Farmers in Liechtenstein can no longer feed cannabis to their herds under new rules in the small Alpine state.
Traces of the drug found in hashish have been filtering through to the milk of dairy cows fed with the hemp plant.
The levels breach the maximum limit set by the new rules - which say animal feed must be free of any element that could have an ill effect on humans.
The story continues:
The levels breach the maximum limit set by the new rules - which say animal feed must be free of any element that could have an ill effect on humans.
The rules to be introduced in March are to bring Liechtenstein in line with standards in neighbouring Switzerland.
Hemp will also be banned from the diets of meat herds, although reports say there is no clear evidence that THC - the active substance found in hashish - can filter through into meat.
The hemp tree is part of the cannabis species, which includes marijuana plants.
The broadcast item was obviously done recently as it is full of very calm cows chomping on their dope in the early summer sunshine. Merry tanned farmers explain how contented (stoned?) cows produce more milk. Others dissent and think the practice is new age nonsense. All very funny and gives the newscasters great chances for puns and comments as a relief from the dire news of the past week or two. (It does contrast rather badly with the horrible news from Niger about the famine going on there. Therealcervantes wrote a much neglected diary on this yesterday. Another report from Hilary Anderson is broadcast today.)
Now the curious aspect of this. The video was obviously shot recently but the written piece is from mid February. The story is good and highly visual but this does smack a bit of somebody at the Beeb getting an freebie summer holiday to Liechtenstein on the back of making the report. Maybe the skiing was bad in February and I suppose the plants were not in full leaf then.