Hello Tom and All,
Tom wrote:
This is ends up as 8038 acres - (3.14*(2^2)*640) (640 acres in a square mile)
Tom clearly shows that the organic farmers thoughts for organic honey from his bees are only thoughts.
Research in the U.S. has shown five miles is within the bees reach when the need arises.
It is true most forage is done close to the hive BUT bees do at times forage great distances and many run out of fuel on the return trip and die before returning to the hive as the bee uses blood sugar when the honey stomach is empty.
When blood sugar is used up the bee can not fly.
In fact at times bees will spend the night out on the return trip if dark happens on the return home.
The organic farmer from the post will most likely produce a pesticide free honey but testing is the only way you can be certain and testing for all possible pesticides is not possible with today's lab costs.
Remote areas of the world free of farming and people would in my opinion qualify for pesticide free honey.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Ps. Pure Honey on the label only says the product is honey and not part sugar syrup.
So far testing has not shown that the worlds honey is a inferior product to so called *organic* honey.
I would rather see labels like below or better yet signs by the product explaining the process to the buyer.
raw honey
unheated in any way
not pasteurized
not pressure filtered
only strained
from chemical free hives