From: "Bill Truesdell" (under 'Funny honey taste')  "> I am with Bob (under
'Organic honey') . It is not any resistance to change, but an acknowledgment
that there really is no such thing as organic honey.  For the dishonest,
Organic Honey is a goldmine."

I was just ruminating in my own earlier post - let me make a proposal.  'A
market for 'organic' is here - some people do want some assurance on higher
food standards and will pay.  So bekeepers do need to respond somehow.  As
has been said, very few beekeepers indeed  can give assurances on the
sources their bees fly to, and so cannot qualify as 'organic producers'  -
but many more could establish an alternative standard based on not  applying
any chemicals to the hive plus no sugar feeding. This standard would need
another name - possibly 'guaranteed natural'  (but trying to get a concept
into a few words is always difficult).   Beekeepers could then try to
educate the public , saying 'organic' is not really the appropriate term for
produce from an animal that flies freely (as it is not verifiable) , so we
beekeepers offer 'guaranteed natural'  to give verifiable assurances on the
standards applied to the production process subsequent to the collection of
the nectar.  Then we don't just sound negative and dismissive of the
consumer's interests.

Is there any body however within world beekeeping that is in a position to
set the standards that would define a new category of honey as say
'guaranteed natural'?   If it is only given a different meaning by each
indiviual beekeeper then the classification will never get established with
the consumer and will fail to establish effective competion with (imported)
'organic honey'.

If there is no such body, could we arrive at a definition on Bee-L that we
could print on subsidiary labels and put on our jars as a way to start
countering competition from (dubious) 'organic honey'?   Bob has th
experience and measured approach to problems to be able to make the first
proposal.

Robin Dartington

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