I don't like extra chemicals in my food, and I am an old dairy man.? Still, at times we need to use treatments - but I'm in favor of a form of Integrated Pest Management.? Treat or deal with (burn) when and if needed for diseases, pests.? Choose your? treatments and cultural practices carefully.? No shop towels soaked in ___, ___, or ___ for me.
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However, if the public ever goes to zero tolerance for chemicals as well as antibiotics and other biologicals?in honey - there's no way that can be accomplished.?
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40 years of analyzing things in bee colonies - their widespread ranging, use of nectar, pollen, resin, water; with electrostatically sticky branched hairs - they sample everything.? There is no such thing as zero anything in a bee colony.? There's no such thing as truly organic honey; even in the remotest areas of the west where the nearest neighbor may?be 20-30 miles away.?
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Pesticides we know, industrial chemicals we know, pests and diseases from other invertebrates we know, pests and diseases from other animals (think deer, mice) we know - from our data?- we know and we?have to data to show all occur in/on bees, pollen, honey.
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Want to lay awake at night worrying about food quality, you need to see some of the things we've found in beehives.? Remember, our long-term sponsors?used bees to?find agents of?chem/bio warfare.
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If its in or on the plants, air, water - it can end up in the hive.? Usually at low levels, usually not viable if biological, but the very names would freak out the consumer.?
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My observation hive on our campus picks up samples of everything going out of the stacks from the chem and from the bio-labs.? Ever seen human std's in beehives?? I have, and lots more.? Think botulism is the only other thing of concern in honey, think again.
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Fortunately, levels are generally low AND most honey? is bulked or blended from multiple hives, and for the larger operations, from multiple locations and beekeepers.? The one good thing about blended honey is dilution.?
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Think your honey from one hive in the backyard in an urban setting is better - think again.? Hate to burst your bubble, but you're consuming honey and pollen from a point source that has no dilution.? So, if you or you're neighbor are heavy handed with the box store chemicals, it will be in your hive.? More urban the area, the greater the diversity and amounts of pesticides and industrial pollutants, as a general rule.
In our pollution studies of the 80s, we found? backyard beekeepers with arsenic, cadmium, lead, zinc, copper in levels of ppm's, sometimes hundreds of ppm's.?? Not the pollen I want to put on my cereal every morning.
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How about dog parasites in honey from a hive near a kennel?
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Let's get real - honey, pollen, bees reflect what's in their surroundings.? Its no better than any other food product, and can be worse due to the far ranging of bees and the multiple sources they sample.?
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All the beekeeper can do is practice reasonable precautions when managing bees - and if possible?stay away from major heavy industry sources or high vehicle traffic (your bees get all of the BTEX breakdown products from gasoline and diesel).
J.J. Bromenshenk
Bee Alert
Missoula, Mt
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>
To: BEE-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tue, Aug 20, 2013 8:08 am
Subject: [BEE-L] Food Safety Issues
> I think it is slightly disingenuous to attempt to discredit the removal of
antibiotics from the beehives by linking the practice to outbreaks of foodborn
illness.
Both are issues of food safety, real or perceived. It is widely known (refs
available) that the public's perception of food safety is skewed by
misinformation. For example, the public generally regards the producers and
distributors of food as the main source of food contamination, whereas in fact
more cases of food contamination and poisoning occur after the food is purchased
(e.g., in the home or at the picnic)
Pete
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