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Vegemite, loved by Australians, celebrates 100 years in 2023. To mark the occasion, the Royal Australian Mint has released a Vegemite edition of the $1 coin. The coloured coin will feature a piece of toast with Vegemite smeared on it, which is “surely Australia’s national dish”, the Mint said. “As an Aussie icon and a rite of passage, Vegemite celebrates everything unique and fun about Australia, and what it means to be Happy Little Vegemites!” the Royal Australian Mint said. The Queen’s face will be on the flip side of Vegemite coin. The Queen’s portrait has been on Australian coins...

Joe Biden announced late Friday that Australia will ship more than 1.25 million cans of baby formula by the planeload to the U.S. to help address the nationwide shortage. The varieties include “easy-digest” goat’s milk, organic grass-fed cows milk and specialty formulas. Biden tweeted news the Australian supplier would ultimately fly 22.5 million bottles of formula (there are 22 bottles of formula per can) some 9,700 miles across the Pacific Ocean at his request. The development came after Jill Biden staged a media photo-op with pallets of baby formula flown in from Germany on Wednesday.

A study has revealed people's like or dislike for Vegemite is in their DNA. Whether people love or hate the yeast-based spread is reportedly down to their parents, according to a new study by DNAFit - one of the UK's top genetic research centres - who have discovered your genes determine whether or not you enjoy the opinion-dividing snack. DNAFit asked 260 adults to taste a 2g serving of Marmite, the British equivalent of Vegemite, before filling out a questionnaire noting their reaction to it, and after analysing the DNA of each participant, researchers discovered the make up of 15...

ASTRONAUTS on missions to Mars and beyond could soon survive off a “Vegemite-like” substance made from human waste. Scientists have just developed the method which uses microbes to break down solid and liquid waste. What’s left behind is a “microbial goo” that’s high in protein and fat — essential qualities for food sources needed for long space voyages. ... “Imagine if someone were to finetune our system so that you could get 85 per cent of the carbon and nitrogen back from waste into protein without having to use hydroponics or artificial light,” Professor House said. “That would be a...

'First Americans were Australian' This is the face of the first known American, Lucia The first Americans were descended from Australian aborigines, according to evidence in a new BBC documentary. The skulls suggest faces like those of Australian aborigines The programme, Ancient Voices, shows that the dimensions of prehistoric skulls found in Brazil match those of the aboriginal peoples of Australia and Melanesia. Other evidence suggests that these first Americans were later massacred by invaders from Asia. Until now, native Americans were believed to have descended from Asian ancestors who arrived over a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska and...

The days of Vegemite, the Australian equivalent to Marmite, could be numbered down-under because people are using it to make moonshine. Just like its British counter-part the love-it-or-hate-it sticky spread is somewhat of a cultural favourite. But Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion, said its sale should be restricted in remote communities where alcohol is banned. He went as far as describing the spread as a ‘precursor to misery’, claiming kids were too hung over to go to school and blaming it for a spike in domestic violence cases. Mr Scullion says in communities where alcohol is banned because of addiction...

BARACK Obama will be given a jar of kids' Vegemite to tempt him to try the popular breakfast spread when he arrives in Australia tomorrow. US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich said he was a convert and told the Herald Sun he would try to change the presidential tastebuds after Mr Obama described Vegemite as "horrible". In March, when Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited a Washington school with Mr Obama, he told students he was no fan of the traditional Australian breakfast staple, describing it as "a quasi-vegetable by-product paste". Ms Gillard fired back that she loved Vegemite and now has the...

After news that Britain's beloved Marmite has been removed from supermarket shelves in Denmark it emerged Thursday that Australia's favorite spread, Vegemite, has also been added to the Scandanavian country's banned list. Denmark has ordered Vegemite, along with Marmite and Ovaltine, off its shelves because food authorities have never confirmed claims that it is a "rich source of Vitamin B" and folate.

JULIA Gillard came to talk about education and Australia's place in the world, but for Barack Obama and a class of high school history students, Vegemite was the main topic of interest. Hosting the Prime Minister on a visit to the Wakefield High School, in Virginia, the most-powerful man in the world had a clear message about Vegemite - the sandwich filling that is part of the average Australian childhood. Vegemite was, Mr Obama declared, "horrible". "It's like a quasi-vegetable by-product paste that you smear all over your toast," Mr Obama told the students after one asked Mr Gillard to...

"Kimchi Meets Vegemite'' may sound like an unusual title for an art exhibition. Featuring works by Australian artist Robert Liddicoat and Korean artist Choi Jin-ho, the exhibition combines the distinct styles of each artist's home country. While everyone in Korea knows what kimchi is, vegemite may be unfamiliar to those who have never been to Australia. ``Vegemite is this distinctively Australian paste. It's like a paste you put on to bread. It's salty and tastes a bit like strong soy paste… So Jin-ho came up with the name (of the exhibition). It's very Korean and very Australian. Their works are...

AUSTRALIANS travelling to the US can breathe easy. So can the 100,000 or so Australian expatriates living in America. The US government today dismissed media reports it had banned Vegemite. "There is no ban on Vegemite," US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokesman Mike Herndon said. Media reports at the weekend claimed American border officials were confiscating Vegemite from Australians as they entered the US. The FDA, charged with policing America's food supply, has not issued an "import alert" to border officials to halt the import of Vegemite.

ULURULULULULULULULU! I call on my brother Australians to avenge this most grievous attack on our people and sacred beliefs. A phatwa upon the infidels and untasters! Let it be known: the volatile Australian street is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very angry. Apologise now, pig monster American hegemen, or face our wrath. UPDATE. In other regulatory news, Jules Crittenden slams the military’s dumb response to milbloggers. UPDATE II. kisdm001: “Newsweek is reporting that a jar of Vegemite has been found in a toilet in Gitmo.” UPDATE III. Regarding military dumbness, further...

Shock, incredulity and downright horror – that has been Australians’ reaction to the news that US has banned Vegemite. And even Americans who can’t stand the stuff think their government has gone too far. “We have terrorists trying to smuggle in weapons, dirty bombs, WMD, we have druglords smuggling in tons of illegal hallucinogen drugs,” writes an American poster going by the screen name of Fair Opinion at the US-based Free Republic bulletin board. “And border security is spending time and effort to stop people from bringing in vegetable extract!” Another US poster observed, “It's pretty silly for the government...

THE US has banned Vegemite, even to the point of searching Aussies for jars of the spread as they enter the country. The bizarre condiment crackdown was prompted because Vegemite has been deemed illegal under US food laws. The great Aussie icon -- faithfully carried around the world by travellers from Down Under -- contains folate, which under a technicality, the US allows only to be added to breads and cereals. Australian expatriates in the US said enforcement of the ban had been gradually stepped up and was now ruining lifelong Vegemite on toast breakfast traditions. Former Geelong man Daniel...

MELBOURNE'S Jewish community are unhappy little Vegemites. After 20 years of producing it, Kraft has scrapped kosher Vegemite. Hundreds of families have been scouring supermarkets for the last kosher jars of the famous spread. One mum bought 75 jars in one shop. Jewish kosher certification group Kosher Australia has received at least five complaints a day since Kraft confirmed the end of production a few months ago. KA general manager Yankel Wajsbort said Kraft had been producing kosher Vegemite for at least 20 years. Mr Wajsbort said batches of kosher Vegemite had been made at Kraft after processing machines were...

Australia was a divided nation last night as its troops prepared to join a United States-led invasion of Iraq and Federal Parliament descended into a bitter debate over waging war without specific United Nations backing. The Prime Minister came under heavy flak for committing the country to war after the US President, George Bush, gave Saddam Hussein and his sons until tomorrow to leave Iraq or face attack. John Howard said the coalition of US, British and Australian troops did not need further UN approval to launch the invasion. "The Government strongly believes that the decision it's taken is right,...