It's no immediate help to Bob's problem, but there is ongoing research
aiming to demonstrate that control over a much smaller foraging range,
under some circumstances, should still provide sufficient protection from
contamination to warrant USDA organic certification for honey produced in
areas that are relatively isolated from conventional agriculture.  The work
is USDA-funded, and is a collaboration between labs at Penn State, Virginia
Tech, and Cornell:

https://www.psu.edu/news/agricultural-sciences/story/grant-funds-research-could-help-certification-organic-honey-bee/


I've no notion of the progress of the research or what they'll eventually
conclude, or whether the regulators will accept and act on their data, but
at the very least some researchers and some folks inside USDA recognize
that the current situation surrounding "organic honey" regulation is pretty
silly.

-David

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