a couple of Mr Makovec snips followed by > my comments...

But one does not need a degree (or six) to know that government intervention in an industry does not always (or even usually) benefit that industry or its consumers. Such intervention almost always benefits the largest players at the expense of competition, and of the consumer.

> So a simplistic and naive view trumps education, complexity and understanding?   I am GUESSING that you have no evidence or proof of the above statement so this would fall into what many economist would call a presumption (doesn't even qualify for what any honest economist would pronounce as an assumption).

Mr. Ash responded by decrying a new law in Texas that he feared could lead to "well publicized incidents of bad or tainted honey" that could damage the reputation of the entire industry in that state. When I looked up that law I was surprised to learn that the new, Wild West climate he criticized was virtually identical to the restrictive Missouri law that we had just succeeded in overturning!

>There is a long history of larceny associated with the selling of honey... some of course will choose to ignore this history.

> first I think you are being a bit loose with my prior comments.  secondly my prior critique on how this would play out has now gone from hypothetical to fact.  at least with one correspondence I have had with a state health department official under this new law the health department now has NO authority to even investigate anything related to honey.  according to the same letter they are even uncertain if they have authority to commit any resources to investigate illegally imported honey which quite often comes in thru the port of Houston. <coincident you think?  with no one in authority to mitigate these sorts of situations the consumer is the first in line to loose and next is the small scale beekeeper who is competing with someone who likely will recognize the weakness in the system and figure out pretty quickly the bigger the crime the larger the reward.
  
The Missouri health department of course trotted out scary scenarios of adulteration and harmful chemicals (neither of which would have been prevented or even inspected for under the previous law), but admitted to me in writing that they had "no records showing honey as the cause of any food-borne illness" in Missouri.

>adulteration and harmful chemical in honey is not the same thing as a food born illness.  sounds like a pretty good prior record and you hope your newer program will improve on this record?  of course we have had 'food born illness' (and death) from a very local and well know maker of ice cream maker here (they are highly supportive of the bee club down in Brenham, TX).... I am guessing that based upon what I have read they certainly now wish they had paid attention to the health department folks (in a couple of states) who gave them a heads up on their problem and which they failed to follow up on.  beyond the cost to them in the millions their BRAND is now to some degree blemished. 

Accurate, transparent labeling - pure honey vs some other blend, and yes, country of origin - is in my view necessary for consumers to make an informed decision. But I think it is then incumbent upon our industry to explain to those consumers why they should buy our product rather than someone else's.

>with no one in charge how is any of the above going to go from idea to implementation to enforcement? it would seem by the above paragraph that Mr Markovec want to have it both ways since his newer and improved state law will not allow for any of the above.

>> it will be interesting to see how the Missouri experiment works out.  I like Mr Borst can appreciate honey from lots of places that are neither local nor of US origin .  there are some quite good honeys out there although imho none are highly processed.  

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