Aaron said:

> Jim could probably weave a few "whereas"es and
> "Wherefore"s together...

Yeah, jim could, but jim is no longer even a member of
the ABF.  (I declined to renew my membership after trying
to get their support for a sane approach to managing the
increased risk of importing bee diseases and pests into
the USA along with imported queens/packages, but they
never seemed to move from their knee-jerk position of
"just say no to imports", still in denial about the
existence of the WTO agreements.)

Any proposal on oxalic clearly must come from an active member
of the organization at hand.  I see no reason why both ABF and
AHPA could not pass resolutions on this matter in short order,
but I thought the same about the diseases/pests issue.

A better bet might be to leverage the Eastern Apicultural
Society, the Western Apicultural Society, and the Heartland
Apicultural Society.  EAS is already committed to getting
involved in gaining approval for certain items as "organic
use approved", so EAS may have already formed a working group.

EAS, HAS, and WAS have a majority of hobbyist members, and it must
be understood that hobbyists are more likely to have the time and
desire to experiment with things like oxalic.  (Commercial beekeepers
can't and should not want to "experiment" with something that some
regulators view as a risk to both the beekeeper and the crop.
No one wants problems with the FDA and OSHA at the same time!)

As I recall Aaron, you are (or were) a big-wig in EAS, so
you might be a credible source of the proposal.  I am
just another random beekeeper, and neither hold nor seek
any official position in any group.

But, if anyone needs a ghost-writer, I can type fast.


   jim (To understand just how weird things have gotten,
    you have to see an SUV parked next to a Mini Cooper)

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