Kim Flottum (who prints his magazine
with soy ink on recycled paper) said:
> ...for any beekeeper wishing to produce organic honey.
> Simply put, it becomes a chicken/egg problem....to raise
> organic honey, you need organic bees that must be raised
> on organic beewax comb, and only organic bees can produce
> organic beeswax.
The "organic standards" are a fine idea... for plant crops.
But I don't think that any beekeeper who thinks about it
for more than a minute would agree that an "organic honey"
program is a good idea for the US honey "industry".
(Yes, this week on "What Happens After What Comes Next?"
we again explore the blindingly obvious in excruciating
detail, by taking facts and banging them against other facts...)
The attempt to force-fit "organic" standards into beekeeping
is a hand grenade tossed at the basic concept of "pure honey".
If only a small percentage of honey can be labeled "organic",
then what's the consumer forced to conclude about ALL OTHER honey?
Worse yet, the current implementation of the "organic" standards
is "Broken As Designed" (or, as we like to call such things here
at the lab, "B.A.D."). There is simply no possible way for any
"organic" beekeeper to know if anyone within the foraging range
of his or her hives is using a pesticide, herbicide, or other
"nasty thing" at any point in time. All he can do is hope.
It follows that at some point in the near future, honey labeled
"organic" will be tested by a lab, found to be "contaminated" at
some parts-per-billion or parts-per-trillion level, resulting in
the usual "investigative journalism" scare-mongering. Needless
to say, the unlucky producer with his label on the bottle will
have his organic certification, threatened, and will be tainted
with a hint of scandal for the rest of his days.
And so will all the rest of us.
The producer at issue will also have the highly dubious honor
of pointing out that he strictly complied with the requirements
of the organic program, so any actual contamination found does
not render his honey unfit for the "organic" label. About 30
seconds after this statement stops echoing around the room, the
entire "organic honey" program will suddenly disappear in a
cloud of greasy black smoke.
But even though the rules as defined do nothing to completely
assure uncontaminated honey, the rules unfairly exclude some
beekeepers who might be able to meet the same requirements if
more specific wording were used.
For example, there is a golf course within the foraging range
of my bees. Never mind that it is a small municipal golf course
that has never had a budget for herbicides or pesticides and never
will. The mere fact that it is a "golf course" means that I cannot
ever be considered for "organic" certification if I keep my hives
within foraging range of it.
In my specific case, there are other nearby land uses that also
prevent me from meeting the "organic" standards, but I'll bet
that there is a non-trivial number of beekeepers who might able
able to certify as "organic" if not for the (generally accurate)
assumptions made in the organic standards about the connection
between specific land uses and possible contaminants.
As currently worded, the organic standards for honey are nothing
but a lawsuit waiting to happen. I'd guess that handing the
standards to a judge and mentioning the "Equal Protection" clause
of the 14th amendment to the US (as it applies to state laws) and
the "due process" requirement of the 5th amendment (as it applies
to federal laws) ought to be an easy slam-dunk.
Bottom line, "organic" should not be allowed as an adjective
used as a modifier for "honey", since the "Organic Program" as
currently implemented merely describes a set of "best practices"
that cannot assure a final product free of detectable contamination.
If we simply leave well enough alone, we have a product that
consistently tests at higher purity levels than any other food
product. Honey is perceived as "organic" by definition, and we
should not allow anyone, including a government agency, to suggest
otherwise.
jim (Who is still searching for a customer of
an "Organic Food Store" who does not resemble
an extra from "Night Of The Living Dead")
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