Hallo Todd, Iīm the beekeeper / paintman who likes solvent-borne coatings.I donīt really understand this organic honey thing. Obviously you canīt know exactly where your bees have been and next year it may well be different -same colony, same apiary, same time of year- due to weather, crop rotation, crop spraying, what-have-you.Despite this, honey analysis can, for one harvest, give a very good idea of the level of contamination, at least for those substances which are known and can be analysed without it costing a fortune. I use beeswax which comes with an analysis so varroacides, PDB etc.are excluded from my foundation. I treat my hives with organic acids, essential oils and thymol. This still leaves the problem of insecticides and fungicides, particularly those sprayed into open blossom ( e.g. rapeseed) and this can change from year to year.However,if your local government departments are deciding in an arbitrary manner which regions / areas shall be excluded from organic honey production then you have a problem.Such regulations could hardly stand up in a court of law, what would they supply as evidence? An analysis of ones own honey from one apiary should indicate if there are general problems e.g high heavy metal concentrations.I say if there is no such thing as organic honey then organic foodstuffs full stop do not exist but this is throwing the child out with the bathwater and kills any attempt to improve matters.I suspect that the bees themselves are the best indicators of environmental pollution.Currently the seed treatment Gaucho ( imidochloride ) is in question here in Europe, it is suspected of causing nerve damage in bees, disorientation etc.No-one is talking ( yet ) of effects upon humans . Regards Derek Steed :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::