罗德·麦格克 墨尔本，澳大利亚 — 一名囚犯周一在法庭上败诉，未能推翻澳大利亚一个州禁止囚犯食用Vegemite（维吉麦特）的规定。他在法庭上辩称，剥夺这种极具争议的酵母基涂抹酱侵犯了他作为澳大利亚人“享受其文化”的权利。现年55岁的安德烈·麦克切尼因谋杀罪正在服无期徒刑，去年他曾将争取这种咸味、黏稠、黑褐色的啤酒酿造副产品的斗争带到了维多利亚州最高法院。
ROD MCGUIRK MELBOURNE, Australia — A prisoner on Monday lost his challenge to an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite after he argued in court that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread breached his human right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.”Andre McKechnie, 55, who is serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, black-brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria last year.
法庭文件显示，他辩称被拒提供Vegemite剥夺了他根据《人权与责任宪章法案》享有的权利，即“与其他澳大利亚背景的人一起在社区中享受其作为澳大利亚人的文化”。
He had argued being refused Vegemite denied him his right under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to “enjoy his culture as an Australian in the community with other persons of Australian background,” court documents showed.
克莱尔·哈里斯法官认定，狱方拒绝允许麦克切尼食用Vegemite“限制了其依据宪章享有的文化权利”。
Justice Claire Harris accepted prison authorities’ refusal to allow McKechnie Vegemite “limited his cultural rights” under the charter.
但她认定，该禁令因有助于当局清除监狱系统内的违禁毒品和酒精而具有正当性。
But she found the ban was justified in meeting authorities’ goals of removing illicit drugs and alcohol from the prison system.
哈里斯在其长达47页的判决书中写道：“麦克切尼先生与其他澳大利亚背景的人一起在社区中享受Vegemite的能力受到限制，主要是因为他是一名囚犯。”
“The limitation on Mr. McKechnie’s ability to enjoy Vegemite in community with other persons of Australian background is primarily that he is a prisoner,” Harris wrote in her 47-page judgment.
狱方官员在7月的庭审中作证称，过去20年来，该州12座监狱全面禁止Vegemite，因为它可能会损害缉毒犬探测毒品的能力，且因含有酵母而可能被用来酿造酒精。
Prison officials testified at a trial in July that Vegemite had been banned throughout the state’s 12 prisons for the past 20 years because it could potentially impair sniffer dogs’ ability to detect narcotics and could be used to brew alcohol because of its yeast content.
麦克切尼通过视频连线从墨尔本以西的最高戒备巴旺监狱自行出庭辩护。他辩称，邻州新南威尔士州并未禁止监狱内的Vegemite，这证明存在“合理可行的限制性较小的手段”来实现此类禁毒和禁酒目标。
McKechnie, who represented himself in court by video link from maximum security Barwon Prison west of Melbourne, argued that the fact that neighboring New South Wales state did not ban Vegemite from its prisons was evidence that there were “less restrictive means reasonably available” to achieve such drug and alcohol outcomes.
绝大多数澳大利亚人将 Vegemite 视为一款遭受不公诋毁的美食标志，据估计，超过 80% 的澳大利亚家庭储藏室里都备有一罐。对于那些不是从小吃着它长大的人来说，Vegemite 充其量只能算是一种需要培养的口味。
Most Australians revere Vegemite as an unfairly maligned culinary icon, and more than 80% of Australian households are estimated to have a jar in their pantries. Vegemite is typically considered an acquired taste at best by those who weren’t raised on it.
上一位访问澳大利亚的美国总统巴拉克·奥巴马曾说：“太难吃了。”麦克切尼最初作证称，缺乏 Vegemite 导致了他的硫胺素缺乏。
The last U.S. president to visit Australia, Barack Obama, once said: “It’s horrible.”McKechnie had initially testified that the lack of Vegemite had contributed to his thiamine deficiency.
他表示，Vegemite 和猪肉都是硫胺素（即维生素 B1）的来源。作为一名遵守犹太教饮食戒律的犹太人，他告诉法庭自己也不能吃猪肉，因此每天服用维生素补充剂。
He said both Vegemite and pork were sources of thiamine, also known as vitamin B1. As a Jew who observed kosher law, he told the court he couldn’t eat pork either and took daily doses of the vitamin.
Vegemite 长期以来一直以含有硫胺素（B1）、核黄素（B2）、烟酸（B3）和叶酸（B9）等 B 族维生素为卖点，宣称是成长期儿童饮食的健康补充。
Vegemite has long been marketed as a source of B vitamins thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3) and folate (B9) which are promoted as healthy additions to the diets of growing children.
但在狱方律师对他的证词提出异议后，麦克切尼放弃了硫胺素这一论点，称其“不重要”。
But McKechnie dropped the thiamine issue as “not important,” after lawyers for the prison authorities objected to his evidence.
麦克切尼表示，无法食用 Vegemite 让他感到“被剥夺了实践澳大利亚文化的权利，感到悲伤，并与家人和社区脱节。”
McKechnie said not eating Vegemite made him feel “deprived of being able to practice my Australian culture, sad and disconnected from my family and community.”
法官回应称，“很难接受无法食用 Vegemite，而不是入狱这一事实本身，是导致他悲伤和与家人社区脱节的实质性原因。”
The judge responded that “it is difficult to accept that the inability to consume Vegemite, rather than the fact of his imprisonment, is a material cause of his sadness and disconnection from his family and community.”
麦克切尼引用了食物研究期刊《Gastronomica》2003 年发表的一篇文章，文中称：“Vegemite 可能是世界上任何食物中预测国家认同的最佳指标。”
McKechnie cited an article published in the food studies journal “Gastronomica” in 2003 that said, “Vegemite may be the best predictor of national identity of any food in the world.”
该文章基于澳大利亚昆士兰大学 1995 年的研究，发现“对这种涂抹酱的喜好与早期接触经历、以及澳大利亚出生和血统有着强烈相关性。”麦克切尼还提到，澳大利亚奥林匹克委员会曾在 2008 年北京夏季奥运会前推翻了中国对 Vegemite 的进口禁令。
The article, based on research by Australia’s Queensland University in 1995, found that a “taste for the spread strongly correlates with early exposure and to Australian birth and ancestry.”McKechnie also referred to the Australian Olympic Committee overturning an Chinese import ban on Vegemite ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
他引用了澳大利亚乐队“Men at Work”在1980年代的国际热门单曲《Down Under》（在澳大利亚），歌词中提到“Vegemite三明治”。关于用Vegemite涂抹违禁品的有效性，麦基尼引用了一篇2017年墨尔本报纸的文章，报道了一名男子试图利用这种涂抹酱的气味掩盖他企图偷运进维多利亚州一场音乐节的违禁药物，但未能成功。该企图被警方缉毒犬挫败。
He cited Australian band Men at Work’s 1980s international hit “Down Under” that mentions a “Vegemite sandwich.”On the effectiveness of smearing contraband with Vegemite, McKechnie cited a Melbourne newspaper article from 2017 that reported a man’s unsuccessful attempt to use the odor of the spread to conceal illicit drugs that he attempted to smuggle into a music festival in Victoria. The attempt was thwarted by police sniffer dogs.
法官支持监狱当局的论点，认为麦基尼未能为其“Vegemite不会干扰缉毒犬”这一观点提供任何适当依据。
The judge upheld prison authorities’ argument that McKechnie had failed to provide any proper foundations for his opinion that Vegemite does not interfere with drug sniffer dogs.
麦基尼还辩称，Vegemite含有“非活性酵母”，任何一块水果酿造酒精的作用都比这种涂抹酱大。
McKechnie also argued that Vegemite contained “no live yeast” and that any piece of fruit would be more useful in making alcohol than the spread.
维多利亚州监狱管理局经理凯文·怀特引用公开可得的研究称，Vegemite有助于自酿啤酒更快发酵。Vegemite的所有者Bega集团周一未回应置评请求。
A state prison department manager, Kevin White, cited publicly available research that said Vegemite helped home-brewed beer ferment more quickly. Vegemite’s owner, Bega Group, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.