Mark Berninghausen wrote:

> ESHPA membership have never supported the idea of mandatory registration
of apiaries and a fee.



Well, less than true.  Circa 2006 a NYS Farm Bureau proposal mandating
apiary registration came from a Western New York regional meeting and with
little fanfare, some may opine surreptitiously, passed into law in June
2007.  The law passed some 3 weeks before the state filled the State
Apiarist position, the announcement of which was made at the Summer Picnic
in July 2007.  The newly anointed State Apiarist made no mention of the new
law, and it wasn't until the fall newsletter was published in October that
the State's beekeepers became aware of the new law, which was a contentious
topic of discussion at the fall meeting in November.  So contentious was
this law that the Farm Bureau sent a representative to do damage control at
a specially scheduled Saturday afternoon session at the 2-day meeting.  The
new law was unpopular for many reasons.  As indicated in the newspaper
articles linked earlier this afternoon by Jim, the apiary inspection
program has not always been popular for reasons such as alleged site
poaching, favors for friends, search and seizure without due process and on
and on.  But I digress from Mark's statement, which is at least part
true.  Indeed,
ESHPA membership has never supported the idea of mandatory registration of
apiaries and I won't go near the distaste of fees.  To this day I pity the
Farm Bureau Rep who stood staunchly while the shit hit the fan.



I have never seen the minutes of the originating Farm Bureau regional
meeting and was told that the granularity of the minutes would not reflect
who moved the action in the first place.  Rumor was the suggestion emanated
from the nether regions of Western New York introduced into the
bureaucratic machinery by an ESHPA member claiming backing of the state
organization.  So, although it is true that mandatory apiary registration
legislation was never supported by ESHPA membership, the origination of the
legislation remains cloaked in rumor and innuendo of ESHPA membership and
organizational support.  Rumor and innuendo aside, the three year campaign
to overturn the legislation is well documented.   All the while the
State Apiarist
attempted to convince beekeepers they wanted the law, Farm Bureau continued
to defend its instrumental action to get the legislation passed, the chair
of the Apiary Industry Advisory Committee lectured on why NY beekeepers
should embrace the law (the law passed, we might as well make the best of
it), the AIAC continued to report to the Commissioner of Agriculture
support for the legislation, and NY beekeepers vociferously objected!  In
June 2010 the law was repealed.  The debacle fostered bad feelings, left
egg on many faces, left State legislators scratching their heads wondering
about those crazy beekeepers, and served no one.  I guess it can be said
that ESHPA stepped up to protect the interests of New York Beekeepers, but
in truth it was a 3 ring circus.  It took the efforts of individual
beekeepers to contact their legislators to get the unpopular law repealed.



Aaron Morris - thinking beekeepers are political buffoons!

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