I know if you've grown up in Vermont, or have been converted to our ways, you don't blink an eye when shelling out $12 for a tiny bottle of real maple syrup, baffeled by the rest of the country who settles for the nasty, unnatural aftertaste of Mrs. Butterworth's maple flavored syrup. Well, there is finally sweet, sticky justice being served to companies trying to pass off the cheap stuff as the real stuff. Senator Patrick Leahy has introduced legislation that will make selling the fake stuff a federal felony punishable by five years in prison. According to a statement on Leahy's website:

"The MAPLE Act creates a felony offense carrying a five-year maximum penalty for fraudulently selling maple syrup that is not, in fact, maple syrup. Under current law, the sale of this fraudulent maple syrup is only a misdemeanor offense carrying only on a one-year penalty."

Some might find this extreme, but we're just one little state and our maple syrup is one of the only things we've got on the rest of the country! According to the LA Times, senators from Maine and New York, which also produce real maple syrup, have gotten on board with sponsoring the proposed Maple Agricultural Protection and Law Enforcement, or MAPLE, act.

So go on dousing your pancakes in sickly sweet maple flavored shit, just stop claiming it's the real thing.