a Eugene Makovec snippet...
What are your state's regulations on the bottling and labeling of honey for sale?

Et Ash replies...
We have gone thru the same legal change here and I would guess this is driven by folks that have NOT kept bees long or sold much honey or read into the long history concerning the past and numerous attempts at larceny when it comes to honey as a consumer product.  Evidently this 'naive groups' understanding of marketing and brand is a bit thin and they are also incapable of considering the potential down side of the changes they prepose.  

I also suspect in regards to 'brand' that one or two well publicized incidents of bad or tainted honey and that 'warm and fuzzy' feelin' Mr Makovec speaks about will be gone.  In regards to selling a bottle of honey at some price.... those geographical location adjacent to places that produce quantities of honey will place ALL small producers at a distinct competitive disadvantage.  A similar marketing problem for small producers will also be true in places like Texas which acts as temporary home for large numbers of migratory beekeepers.  Of course the larger 'home grown' (which is to suggest they may or may not be home grown) beekeeper here are more concerned with pollination fees than honey but this larger concern will not keep any and all from dumping quantities of honey at any state along their migration routes. 

Prior to the state of Texas adding honey to the 'cottage food laws' anyone could sell home grown 'unprocessed' agriculture products along the road here... this was a specific exemption in the agriculture laws < this gap or exemption in the law was not so surprisingly totally overlooked by the folks that were so determined to sell this change in law to the legislature.  Now (here in the State of Texas) we are flying with absolutely 'no radar' since no agency or individual is designated to enforce or even make certain the three or four requirement for this 'honey as a cottage food' program are actually enforced < actually by the direct wording in the law 'no agency' is allowed to intervene even if there is the report of a problem.  You still need a 'food manufactures licenses' to sell honey wholesale here and of course (the real rub) is you have to spend a bit of capital to make certain that you have facilities capable of bottling a product in a sanitary fashion.  The actual cost of the license itself is just too inexpensive to even be of any consideration when it comes to this kind of marketing decision (about $150 for a two year license if my memory is correct).

I would guess for some when the existing law produces a inconvenience or some SMALL cost to them personally they simple set out to change the law without ANY CONSIDERATION of the potential down side in the changes they prepose for other or the industry itself.  Evidently 'what is good for me' is the only real standard they are capable of understanding and any potential downside or conflict create by the new law is totally overlooked.

Of course for folks like myself who has been selling honey for a long period of time I can well recognized when the current business context tell me it is time to punt.   

     



 

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