The newspaper article said:

> "But you might be surprised to hear that, currently,
> it's impossible for U.S. honey producers to get their
> product certified as organic."

The entire premise of the article is completely
and clearly false.  There are several "USDA Organic"
honey producers in Hawaii.  Here are just two:

http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/

http://www.localharvest.org/store/item.jsp?id=4399

There are more.
Clearly, the standards can be "met" to one extent
or the other, or perhaps the certification entities
in Hawaii are reading the more draconian sections of
the regulations in a slightly less-strict way, I dunno.

That said, the organic standards as defined for honey
ARE highly unreasonable as compared to the standards for
other commodities, but these basic issues are being
considered by a group who cares more about insuring some
fantasy-world level of both assured zero-pesticide content
of not only the beekeeping operation, but also of every
plant foraged upon, from plant root to nectaries.

The basic errors made by the Organic standards committee are:

a) thinking that non-organic land inherently results in
non-organic nectar

b) thinking that organic land inherently assures organic
nectar

Both statements should be obvious to even the casual observer
as "patently untrue".  Not to worry, the committee is listening
to "the industry", and will asymptotically approach truth and
rationality over time.  (Don't be shy, Nancy Ostiguy is a very
patient and nice person, and can be e-mailed at nxo3 AT psu DOT edu.
She is on the committee to represent beekeeping, not impose her
own personal opinions and will on everyone).

Bill said:

> There was also some concern by Southern California beekeepers with high
> HMF in their honey which sits out in the sun over long periods. They did
> not like the EU HMF limits because their honey had higher HMF
> concentrations by being in the hot sun. They were trying to set standards
> for HMF and it appears they gave up. So it is not academic but real.

Its worse than that, Bill.  The EU HMF standards are set so low simply
because it does not get that hot in the EU for very long during the honey
production season, while many other places where honey is produced do
have hotter summers.  So, even honey handled and stored with great care
will go over the EU's artificially low HMF levels while still being "ripened"

The whole EU HMF spec is easy to expose as nothing but an illegal non-tariff
barrier to trade, a way to cynically restrict imports while posturing and
posing about "health" in some vague and immeasurable way. The easy way to prove
this is to sample some EU honey at EU open-air markets in the summer, and
subject
it to the same tests they want done on imported honey, which will reveal the
con-game. I've never seen ANYONE keeping honey in a cooler at a farmer's market,
have you?  :)

Don't blame the EU.  If we could come up with something unique about honey
produced in the USA, something that we could detect in lab tests, we'd likely
lobby for something similar.  Having "World Trade" shoved down everyone's
throats
does that to people.  We are no better than they are.  All and sundry view
themselves
as "victims", and will defend their livelihoods with every available tool at
hand.

So smile, and nod in appreciation of elegance of the trick played by the EU,
and realize that if YOU had come up with the trick, you'd feel that you were
the baddest dude out there (which we all know is false, because I'm out here,
too).

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