> I think this is getting a little blown out of proportion.  Can we end
> this,
> please ? !

There are always topics that some do not care to read, but, if we stiffled
them all, there would be no list.  Pretty much anything goes here, except
metatopics, i.e. discussing the list, its management etc. (like we are now),
so, if you don't care to read this thread, instructions to avoid it in
future are at the end of this message, so skip on down there now, if you
like.
---

IMO, this is not at all blown out of proportion.  Our name is being used,
but, apparently, not our product, and that is the most serious problem
beekeepers face, since honey adulteration, honey denaturing, and misuse of
the word, honey, result in beekeeper poverty, and a subsequent lack of
resources to manage other problems, like mites.

As the original message in this thread pointed out, the current situation is
the end result of inaction by generations of beekeepers who did not think
the word 'honey' and a strong definition of honey was worth defending.  Now,
North American beekeepers are unable to survive, largely because low-cost,
manufactured sweetners have been able to ride in and displace us, all
pretending to be honey.

I notice, however, that somehow the focus has shifted to 'foreign' honey,
and away from the real culprits, our own importers and manufacturers who are
behind the cheapening of honey and substitution for honey in food products
which, nonetheless, continue to use the word.

These interests are a bit tougher to take on than peasants in distant
countries who happen to share our interest in bees and also want to sell
their products on a fair, open market, so what money and indignation we
manage to muster goes to fighting the other beekeepers worldwide, rather
than taking on governments and corportations who are IMO the real cause of
the problem.  IMPOV, that the very foxes who are denaturing our products and
prostituting our word, honey, appear, to a considerable extent, to be in
charge of the NHB henhouse, does not help.

---
Most email reading software has a delete button, and easy ways to set up
rules to delete email on the mail server, without even downloading it.
Subject lines or even words in the text (like my name) can be used to invoke
a rule and invisibly and automatically eliminate email that emanates from me
or -- even quotes me by name.  Of course such a rule would eliminate Dick
Allen's contributions also.  Oh, well.

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com

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