>The thread "[BEE-L] Vs: [BEE-L] Sustainability & Organic Beekeeping" leads me to point subscribers to:http://www.naturallygrown.org/documents/Handbook2ed.pdf<
I've looked
at these "CNG Guidelines" before, and IMO, while the intent may be good, just
like the 'organic' standard, in practice it will not really work for honey and offers no
real value to the beekeeper or consumer. Per their standards, the apiary must be located
on land with no GMO crops, no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides (including
herbicides), recommended to be on an organic or CNG farm. BUT urban beekeeping
is permitted and can be CNG certified.
So you can be certified if
you keep bees on a 1/4 acre lot and if YOU don't maintain your lawn with chemicals.
Doesn't really matter if your neighbors all use the latest and greatest
chemical fertilizers, keep chemically manicured weed-free lawns, dust all
flowers and plants daily with insecticide, and that the bees drink nearly exclusively from chlorinated and fluoridated municipal water ('cause we know
the bees will only forage on the little 1/4 acre of perfect bee pasture and
the rain barrel we provide!).
You cannot be certified if you
keep your bees anywhere on a conventional farm, orchard, or any 'non-organic'
farm, regardless of your practices. So, to use my apiary as an example,
even though my hives are in the middle of 7 acres of non-artificially
fertilized/treated clover pasture, the bees have acres of fence-rows and conservation
strips specifically maintained for natural habitat, have natural multiple
non-treated water sources, and are maintained using only 'natural' hive
products, it can never be CNG because I also grow 'conventional' crops.
So, using this example, which hives/honey are likely to contain more chemicals/pesticides--the "CNG certified" amidst suburban chemical soup,
or the pastured that are surrounded by GMO (Bt/glyphosate
resistant) corn and soybeans?
Dan O'Callaghan
Irish Hill Farm
Xenia, OH
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