" . this is driven by folks that have NOT kept bees long or sold much honey
or read into the long history concerning the past and numerous attempts at
larceny when it comes to honey as a consumer product."

If you're talking about adulteration, that can just as easily be done in a
commercial kitchen as in someone's home. And correct me if I'm wrong, but
selling corn syrup as honey is already illegal under federal and state
labeling laws and other regulations.

"I also suspect in regards to 'brand' that one or two well publicized
incidents of bad or tainted honey and that 'warm and fuzzy' feelin' Mr
Makovec speaks about will be gone."

We sent a letter to the state health department asking for a list of
documented cases where people had gotten sick from eating honey. Their
response: "The Department has determined that we have no records of
food-borne illness being linked to honey consumption in Missouri." Isn't
protection of the public health the whole reason for health regulations? As
I told the legislators in committee hearings, by its own admission the
health department was solving a problem that did not exist.

"... those geographical location adjacent to places that produce quantities
of honey will place ALL small producers at a distinct competitive
disadvantage."

Actually, it's that competitive disadvantage that we just addressed. More
and more consumers are looking specifically for locally-produced honey at
their local markets. Requiring the small-to-medium-sized beekeeper to spend
thousands of dollars building a commercial kitchen makes it impossible for
him to supply that demand. For me, and for other locals hit by last year's
enforcement, this meant our honey was replaced on the shelves by
out-of-state brands that were not subject to our rules.

People like to think that government agencies issue rules to protect
consumers. But in many cases, those rules are used to justify the jobs of
the inspectors, and to protect entrenched interests from competition. We had
just one beekeeper in Missouri go on record in opposition to what we were
trying to do. This was a large-scale beekeeper, who actually admitted that
he was skirting the existing regulations by extracting the bulk of his honey
in Illinois.

Eugene Makovec

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