> >From: "P. Armstrong" <[log in to unmask]>
> >Date:         Wed, 25 Oct 1995 16:08:09 +0000
> >Subject:      Regulations requiring food processing license
>
> >Do any of you know of regulations requiring a food preperation
> >license requirement in other states?  Here in New Mexico we are
> >facing such a requirement.  If anyone has any info on how we can
> >scientifically, or otherwise, put up an argument that has worked
> >elsewhere we would sure appreciate your help.  We are having a
> >meeting on Oct 31 to fight against this.  Thanks.  Nick Melancon
> >New Mexico Bee Keepers Assoc.
>
> Good Luck Nick, but it will take some work to kill such regulation
> if it is well sponsored like by the state health department or some
> organization. (It may also be someone within your own group that is
> after his competition, you need to know.)
>
> I don't know of any regulations requiring on farm honey processing
> plants to be regulated as a "food preparation" site like say a Taco
> Bell or even a Mexican tortilla factory . Realistic inspection's that
> would include beekeeper's honey processing plants will take away from
> the little inspection that is now going on in other areas. (Find out how
> many time's the greasy spoon's in your town are being inspected. You may
> be surprised that they are only checked once a year or less or if
> someone complains enough, more often. Also find out the number of
> reported illness from your state health department.)
>
> To defeat this kind of legislation the first thing you have to do
> is find out who is pushing it and why. If it is just another plan
> to increase your taxes you many have a better shot at killing it
> then if it's in response to people becoming ill or just concerned
> because they found some bee part's in some honey they were given
> by their neighbor who has some bee's. Or if there is some beekeeper
> who is a neighborhood nuisance because bee's are robbing honey drums
> or some other dumb stunt beekeeper's are know to pull.
>
> Honey extraction is a specialized "on farm" or back yard seasonal event
> and does not warrant the same degree of on site inspection as other
> "food preparation" sites. The cost of such activity is high because of
> the seasonal nature and isolation of these operations and would not be
> covered by normal or reasonable licence fee's and would add to the
> budget for inspection already mandated or reduce valuable man day's from
> that important job. The number of complaint's of illness or food
> poisoning from eating Honey processed on the farm does not exist and in
> total is the lowest of all farm processed foods. In many medium to
> larger operation's honey produced on the farm is further processed by
> the first handler where inspection is mandatory, both local and federal.
> Honey produced by producers who use the Farm Loan Program is covered by
> USDA specialized Honey Inspections to qualify for government programs
> and is inspected.
>
> (check with your state health department to see what is going on if
> anything, also find out who is pushing for the new legislation. You may
> find some group or person that has a hard on for beekeeper's or just
> some nut who think's all farmers should be regulated to the hilt since
> you we all get so much help (cash) from the government.)
>
> Today 99% of the time you are just facing a plan to increase government
> income and not any realistic effort to clean up the honey producing
> industry. (Find out what your state beekeeper's are already paying in
> county and state taxes for being beekeepers.)
>
> Most state legislator's will listen to beekeeper's, we are rare birds
> and a interesting lot. Bee sure you have a small group of beekeepers who
> are prepared to discuss the issue and have a FIRM position that they
> are not afraid to "say it the way they see it". Ask to testify at
> any public hearing and do that. Ask for more public hearings, make a
> record to back your own position. Do not compromise your own position
> leave that to the politicians they will do it to you anyway and any
> weakening of your position will be taken advantage of.
>
> Having some political sense can be very helpful, find out which side
> is pushing the bill and what the leadership position is on it. You must
> meet with member of both sides, but suck up to the one that is not
> sponsoring it and if God is watching out for you they will be the
> majority party and more then willing to help you kill any plan for
> new laws. Legal help from one of the capital lawyers can be helpful but
> will not get it done. They can open doors, and show you the process but
> unless there are some big bucks involved you all are going to have to do
> the work. Meet one on one with your own representatives. Get the support
> of other farm group's, but do NOT let them carry your ball or you may
> find you have one less.
>
> Now if the honey producer's in your state contain more then a few people
> who still extract in tent's or in old barn's with dirt floors you may
> not want to do anything and let nature .err government take it tole.
> Two states I have worked in have made different run's on cleaning up
> the beekeeper's and normally these last one season and that's the last
> you hear of them for years or never.Beekeeper's have cleaned up over the
> years from what it once was, which was satisfactory at the time, but
> is not today. Some of this was good and needed, but one thing that was
> done that was bad was a crack down by the USDA that finished off the
> portable and out yard extracting. I believe that if we were still doing
> it it the field today we would be producing more for less and not have
> the problems with our bee's we do have today. I also think we would be
> doing it a van that would be just as clean as any permanent site, but
> those day's are gone and I don't think that is your problem.
>
> Over the year's my honey house has been targeted for inspection by
> every government agency there is. Some of this has benefited me and
> some of it has been enough to cause any beekeeper to brake up and
> roll on the floor. California several time's has got a wild hair to
> inspect honey extracting plants. One such visit came when I was out of
> state. At the time I had just installed the top of the line extracting
> equipment, I was on the cutting edge then, not the bleeding one like
> now. This included a wonderful flash heater and centrifuge that
> separated out the honey and melted the wax. Had to add a new 200 amp
> service for that one. This machine was the early stage of development of
> the Cook & Beals Separator. Anyway the first tizzy the inspector pulled
> was when he saw the lifelike rubber plucked chicken that hung over the
> fancy imported Penrose uncapping machine.  "You can't do that in here,
> you need to get a different licence to do both chicken's and honey in
> the same place."  God's truth, he really believed that we were plucking
> chicken's with the same machine we uncapped honey combs so my long time
> help told me. This guy was so shook up he did not notice that at the
> time all the honey from the two big Kelley extractors and the
> cappings drained into a very large sump and that sump was covered by
> boards that the man who loaded the extractor stood on, not a very good
> set up that I changed the next season without any input from any
> inspector.
>
> Everything was A OK when he found a wonderful and well built screen
> that fit over a 55 gal drum that he assumed we screened the honey
> through. Actually we only used it when we were taking the tank's down
> and wanted to salvage any wax or junk left in the tank that we did
> not want plugging up the drain or septic system. The honey that went
> in these tanks was ready for shipment and required no further processing
> other then putting it in the drums and weighing it.
>
> This guy did leave two legal size pages of suggestions, mostly
> unrealistic thing's like fixing all the etching in the floor made
> by the acid honey eating the cement. The only thing I could do was
> take that chicken down. He never showed up again.
>
> Mousses americanis, or just mouse droppings was found in the basement
> of my three story honey house on the western slopes of the Rockies in
> Colorado. Some federal money was received to do a Honey House inspection
> in Colorado and I was targeted. A young collage kid was hired for the
> part time job and showed up with a flash light and found 4 or 5 little
> smart pills in the basement that was plugged full of 55 gal drums of
> clover honey in storage for the winter and under loan. That was all
> he could find but enough to make him understandably happy in his work.
> With no help from me when inspecting the upper storage area he lost his
> carefully packaged and labeled packet of smart pills. He had to use a
> flash light as I already had shut this operation down for the winter and
> turned off the utilities, including taking in the gas meter that were
> know to bust from the very low temps when not in use. Anyway I did not
> want him to go back to the eastern slopes and Denver without any smart
> pills and wanted to see just how far they would go with evidence like
> this that had to be sent out to a lab for identification when any dam
> fool could see what it was so I took him back down to the basement and
> moved a few drums around so he could find another sample of smart pills.
> Months later I received this official looking letter from the state
> and included was the lavatory report that the smart pill were indeed
> the spore of the mousses americanis and not fossilized buffalo chips
> which I had framed and hung on the wall in one of my offices.
>
> The last time I was inspected was several years ago when a real
> lawyer-doctor type state health department man showed up at my front
> door about noon and demanded to inspect my honey house which is several
> miles away from my home. After several hours of filling his head with
> all the legal reason's he would do that over my dead body I decided to
> let him do his job  without further blood shed when he changed the
> demand to a polite request much to the surprise and amusement of a
> farmer friend who was visiting and enjoying every minute. The inspection
> was a joy to watch, and the guy could not believe what he was looking
> at and saw no reason for any more Honey House inspections as we were
> not at all what he expected and only made one suggestion that I cover
> the florescent tube's with plastic tubing and I did that as it was a
> good idea having cleaned a broken one's out of a wax vat once. I
> would have never know that these new at the time safety tubes were
> then available if this guy had not shown up and it was a positive
> experience, one of few and still not enough to open my door's to the
> public or any government agent without the proper paper work and
> introduction. I did have two county health people show up once in a fit
> to inspect all honey houses but one call to the board of supervisor's
> put them back on the right track. Thousands of people suffer from
> improper food handling every year in my area, most of it from food
> served at restaurants and gatherings. These place's are only inspected
> once a year with prior notice because of budget and manpower
> considerations that have not gotten any better over the years.
>
> Beekeeper's and the Honey they produce should be so low on the list
> of things that government should worry about as far as new laws that
> no one should waste the time. If it ain't broke no reason to brake it
> and it would not take much to do that as these are the hard day's for
> many beekeepers.
>
>                  Good Luck and I hope you will keep us posted.
>
>                                 ttul Andy-
>
>
>
> (c)Permission to reproduce, granted.
> Opinion is not necessarily fact.
> ---
>  ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ This l l tagline has l l a few l l bees in it...
>
 REPLY: Such an attempt was made in Maryland several years ago:
 the beekeepers put up such a loud howl all over the state
  that the idea was quickly dropped.  So too w/ the proposed
  tax on each colony.  Bonne chance.
 
  Jck the B- man
   John Iannuzzi PhD            * "Singing masons building roofs
   9772 Old Annapolis Rd        *  of gold."       --Shakespeare
   Ellicott City MD 21042 usa   *  20 Italian colonies
   [log in to unmask]   *  3-1/2 decades in beedom