I have been a tiny/small producer & packer of Hawaii honey for the past 5
years. Some how the National Honey Board got my name a long time ago and
started writing me. I quickly saw where they wanted me to send them one
penny per lb. of honey that I bought from others and one penny per lb. of
all the honey I produced and packed in excess of 6,000 lb. per year. I
ignored the letters for a long time. Finally they NHB started calling me
and talking  like the police and I finally asked just who in the hell they
were and by what authority did they  threaten me.  The sweet sounding
female voice on the other end said yes to my question if she could show up
at my house with Federal marshals if I refused to participate. WELL I
decided to cave in and play ball.
        Since then I have been a real team player. I did and do have real concerns
for the expansion of their authority, powers and allowing  them to collect
2 pennies on every lb. of honey from producers over 6,000 lb. Let me tell
about my observations. The transaction reports are required for each and
every transaction completed. No matter if you do several transactions with
the same producer in one month you have to make one transaction report per
transaction. They also want/require your final report for the year
by January 15th. IRS gives us till April 15th. The NHB has busted me
several times because I feel it is reasonable that if several TR are with
the same producer that I should be able to list only his name and say "on
file" for his address, city, zip, and phone number. No, NO, No, says the
NHB compliance officer not even in the computer age.
        What do they do? Lots of honey promotion specifically designed to aid the
mass marketing honey packer companies.  The national advertising is good
and needed and it should promote 100 % USA honey and educate the public to
read the sources of origin( interestingly the sources of origin does not
have to be reflective of the % of honey for the listed countries, in other
words if the sources of origin say US, China, Argentina the amount of US
honey may be the smallest % of the honey) and look for a buy only 100 % USA
honey. I was in Dallas at Thanksgiving and looked at the honey section in a
major super market and they did not have any !00 % US honey. The other area
that they NHB visibly do a lot of work is in the area of International
foreign market promotions. I have sent honey to Paris, Germany, & the
middle east. Sounds good and these efforts are mostly usable by the large
packers. Now if the packers were only exporting US honey fine AND the
amount of honey imported to the USA in outrageous. There are US bee keepers
and more could be developed if a stronger price were being offered to US
beekeepers for their honey. It is disgraceful not to be more supportive of
US beekeepers with the huge demand for pollination. For US beekeepers to
have to compete with the foreign producers and their fast and loose ways of
operation. Just read the USDA reports on China and Argentina. Both have had
dirty honey in the past. These 2 pennies that the NHB wants to collect will
both be paid by the producers no matter what they say the producer will pay
the TAX..
        How in the wide , wide world could any allegedly beekeepers organization
support putting more packers and even foreign importers on the Board of
Directors of the NHB is way beyond me. It approaches being amazing  that
the NHB would not consist of a majority of producers real producers not
producers representing packers. Better yet why not abolish the NHB and
establish a marketing assessment collected by a 100 % beekeepers
organization that would work relentlessly for US beekeepers. The United
States of America is being traded away at an alarming pace.
        BEEKEEPER UNITE we can not leave the beekeeping advocacy to quasi
beekeeper associations. They have gotten too big and political in their
approach . This is yet another area that independent bee keepers must
address. Again like Certified Organic when the victimized independent
beekeeper do nothing on this issue what will happen? Wheres the money?
Packers. Packers want the NHB because it ends up be corporate subsidy to
help the packers buy and sell more foreign honey and to brow beat US
producers to be competitive with foreign producers.
 
                                Best of Bees to all , Walter