Wickedpedia

The Scottish fans in Boston for the World Cup have prompted a curious culinary question.

No Scotland, no party.

What about no haggis, no party? 

The nearly 25 million Americans of Scottish descent — including nearly 130,000 people in Massachusetts and all Scotland fans in Boston for the World Cup — must go without Scotland’s national dish: haggis. 

The savory pudding made from sheep’s heart, lung, and liver with oatmeal, onions, and seasonings was banned in the U.S. in 1971 when livestock lungs were deemed unsuitable for “use as human food” by the Department of Agriculture. 

After Scots took to social media to raise awareness about the lack of haggis, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed an unofficial executive order to make haggis legal in Massachusetts. 

“I have received countless messages from Massachusetts residents, Scotland supporters, legal experts, and at least one very concerned sheep regarding my order making haggis legal in Massachusetts,” Healey wrote Thursday on Instagram. 

However, the order “was, in fact, a joke,” as the state cannot override federal policy, the post said. 

Regardless, Scots are still determined to make haggis legal. 

Simon Howie, the owner of the Scottish butcher company of the same name, launched a campaign called Make Haggis Legal Again.

While haggis is served at The Haven in Jamaica Plain, it doesn’t include sheep’s lung, which is integral to “the texture, the flavor and the bite” of haggis and cannot be replicated with any other meat, Howie said in an interview with Boston.com. 

In 1969, the USDA outlawed animal lungs for human consumption after it found 93.5% of hundreds of beef lungs had “various abnormal conditions” and that inspecting all parts of animal lungs was impractical, according to BBC. 

Fifty-five years later, Howie believes the policy “has fallen through the cracks” and will only change if attention is brought to the matter.

“It’s been great to have an opportunity like the World Cup to showcase Scotland and also talk about things we want to get on the agenda,” Howie said.

The campaign began after Howie’s customers asked to take haggis with them to the U.S. for the World Cup and learned they are unable to. Instead of haggis, Howie sent World Cup fans to Boston with flags with the words “No Haggis. No Party” over the Scottish flag. 

On April 21, Howie launched a petition for the campaign, which has 621 signatures on the way to the goal of 1,000 at the time of publication. 

Although the governor’s order was “a spoof,” it could help the campaign receive national attention so the Scottish can start “engaging with the politicians” to change the policy, he said. Howie is especially optimistic about the campaign’s success because Trump lifted the UK whiskey tariff in May after King Charles visited the U.S.