Juanse Barros  wrote:  >The procedure of Amending the Honey Directive 2001/110/EC is still on. Let see what happens in January 14th, 2014.
> http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?lang=en&reference=2012/0260(COD)<

The link is to the proposed amendments of the Honey Directive. There are 63 amendments to be voted on. Some want pollen classified as an ingredient, some as a constituent, some want honey to be added to a short list of foods whose ingredients  do not have to be listed on labels, others want all GMO pollen to be identified on labels. 

My experience on a district council in UK was that the recommendation of officers (here the Commission) is the substantive motion.  Any councillor could then propose an amendment which if seconded and voted through replaced the substantive motion.   Another amendment could then be tried. The winner was the last amendment standing. The original recommendation only won if every amendment was defeated.  Here all the proposed amendments are published in advance. All the voting members must presumably make up their minds in advance, or if every one has to be debated, it will take hours (perhaps it does?). So it does seem important to write to Euro MP's, if only to correct some doubtful beekeeping statements. 

The pre-eminent doubtful statements is that beekeepers add pollen thru centrifugation.  As sais before, hobbyists' extractors are not run at high enough speeds for tightly packed bee bread to be thrown out.  Does anyone believe that commercial extractors could however do that, and that forcing the honey thru pumps and filters could break up the lumps of beebread so that they are left as an ingredient in the bottled honey? 

Canadian honey exporters may like to note that Canadian canola honey is singled out as certain to contain GMO pollen that must then be identified on labels. 

One amendment wants the costs of testing every batch on honey for GMO pollen NOT to fall on beekeepers.  No suggestion is made of who should pay.  Perhaps Santa Claus, but he is only around at Christmas! 

Robin 
> 
>             ***********************************************
> The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
> LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
> http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html