In article <[log in to unmask]>, "\\Dr. Pedro P.
Rodriguez" <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Hi Murray.  I have only one comment and  one question about your post today.
>
>    1.  Comment:  watch out for those "teeth in order for it to work" in those
>regulations.
>
>    2.  What is your experience and expertise in the history of regulatory
>services in the USA?
>           I have lived and served in Europe many years.  I am well acquainted
>with the way the common market functions.  Believe me,  "it aint the same in
>the
>U S of A."
>     I want to emphasize that I do not produce honey for commercial purposes.
>I
>have nothing to gain or lose from government intervention on this subject.  It
>just happens that honey bees are the love of my life, and I know deep inside my
>heart, that the ones that are bound to get hurt with this trend are the HONEY
>BEES, as if their lot need any more obstacles.
>Best regards.
>Dr. Rodriguez
>Virginia Beach, VA
 
 
Dear Dr. Rodriguez,
 
Answers to your question (and comment) are as follows.
 
1. If it hasn't got teeth it will never deter those, and there are bound
to be some, who would abuse the system. We have folk like that here and
so must you.
 
2. We have dealings, both directly and indirectly, with the FDA and USDA
on a regular basis, several times a year. We probably ship goods in
commercial quantities into the USA on roughly a monthly basis and on a
few occasions have come into conflict with certain officials. However it
is also fair to say that the regulations they are enforcing are purely
there to protect the food purchaser from poor quality, unsafely or
insanitarily packed, or incorrectly labelled goods. Although I have on
one or two occasions felt a little agrieved about restrictions I cannot
say that any ruling I have been given ever went beyond the law. Our
goods have been dealt with strictly, but fairly and consistently, and
this is the way it should be. We adopt a courteous and friendly attitude
towards them and have ALWAYS recieved polite and efficient responses.
 
It is fair of you to point out that we are NOT in the USA, and therefore
to question whether we can pass fully informed comment on the
authorities or their suspected motives. We have a lot of experience of
dealing with them but of course we are not on their doorstep like you,
but from our dealings with your authorities, and the supportive private
e-mails from the US I am getting, I am genuinely surprised at the level
of bitterness emanating from some respondents. Measured scepticism is a
good thing but bitterness is definitely counter productive.
 
I have found European regulations to be more flexibly enforced, but this
works both ways, with the officials sometimes taking the most
obstructive possible view as well as the most helpful, making it a
little difficult to know just where you stand when exporting into the
various countries. US regulations tend to be a bit (sometimes only a
little) less ambiguous and more consistently interpreted. We export to
20 countries and have dealings with officials in many of them, and we
find your authorities no worse than most to deal with.
 
I also fail to see why the enforcement of basic sanitary conditions on
honey houses, and the UNRELATED tightening up of the use of the term
'organic' by use of an audited licensing scheme, will harm your bees.
Perhaps you could enlarge on this as there must be something I am
missing that leads you to that conclusion.
 
Hope you have a nice New Year and look forward to hearing from you
again.
 
 
Murray
--
Murray McGregor