trooper

I said yes to the farm/pasture question once coming back into Australia... the Agriculture guy asked what animals were there...

..and seemed a bit nonplussed when I answered "A herd of Bison"...

chillin247

how d i remove a red flag from my name so i can fine a job

You want to go where?

It isn't quite as simple as this. It depends on both the nature of the product and its source. For example, if you are coming from a place with a known 'Hoof and Mouth' epidemic, they will pull beef jerky, cheese, anything that came from a cow.

The Agricultural folks maintain an ever-changing list of what is acceptable from what countries based on the current state of zoonoses in various countries. However, you do have th right solution: if you are carrying food, always mark yes - I often identify the specific foods/sources on the back of the form for clarity at the beginning. Thus far, I haven't had anything confiscated, although I did have one thorough inspection bringing back meat products from France. At that time, anything that was Beef or Venison was prohibited, but poultry products were OK, so my fois gras came in safely!

William S

The thing with customs is to be honest. If you have food with you of any kind just check food. I had chocolate, biscuits and some rolls with me on the trip over here from Norway. I marked food and the inspector asked me about what kind of food and I told him, he just said okey have a nice day and pointed me to the exit. In Australia everything is xrayed anyway so you have to decleare it otherwise you will get a 220 AUD fine even if the food you bring is allowed.

SFOSpiff

To be fair, the AU and NZ customs forms are a lot more detailed and provide much better directions. Maybe the US form would be more accurately followed if it weren't filled with useless information like the Paperwork Reduction Notice (which, ironically, increases the size of the form and increases the use of paper).

I once got a snarky chewing-out by a US Customs agent because I had checked "no" to being around livestock, when I had hand-fed a kangaroo at an Aussie zoo. Personally, I think of "livestock" as farm animals, and clearly they don't, but the form doesn't go into details. Similarly, while the US asks about being in farms or pastures, NZ and AU also ask about hiking in wilderness areas. I have had my shoes checked for soil over that one.