Continuing the thread on the requirement for bee foraging area:
Honey is not specifically mentioned in the US Federal Code. There are, however, two applicable sections of the Code. Which you think applies depends on how you interpret beekeeping. Either choice results in a requirement that your foraging area be as organic as the rest of your operation.
The section that I think is most applicable is § 205.207 'Wild-crop harvesting practice standard'. Bees are not truly domesticated and make their nectar and pollen collections largely uninfluenced by the beekeeper's decisions. § 205.207 (http://tinyurl.com/al2kaqq) states that "A wild crop that is intended to be sold, labeled, or represented as organic must be harvested from a designated area that has had no prohibited substance, as set forth in § 205.105, applied to it for a period of 3 years immediately preceding the harvest of the wild crop."
If you disagree with my characterization of our bees as "wild", then § 205.237 'Livestock feed' would apply. That section (http://tinyurl.com/b2q6ka8) states that "The producer of an organic livestock operation must provide livestock with a total feed ration composed of agricultural products, INCLUDING PASTURE AND FORAGE, that are organically produced and handled by operations certified to the NOP" (emphasis added). (That clause includes an exception that only applies to dairy animals and two more minor exceptions that talk about feed additives and supplements, neither of which apply to forage.)
Both sections point to § 205.105 'Allowed and prohibited substances, methods, and ingredients in organic production and handling' (http://tinyurl.com/b2q6ka8) for the definition of the organic standard which must be applied to the forage area. Bees are known to forage as far as 7 miles. But even assuming the more commonly cited 2 mile radius, that works out to an area of over 8000 acres that must all meet the definition of organic before you can claim to be providing acceptable forage. Note: Not only must all the farms in that radius meet the organic standard but so must all the residences, lawns, home gardens, forestry operations, watershed management and everything else that occurs within the foraging radius. If your bees are visiting your neighbor's dandelions and even one of them treats his lawn, you're disqualified for three years.
I suppose that it's theoretically possible that such an area exists somewhere within the continental United States but I can not think of where that might be.
Mike Rossander
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