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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:53:15 -0600
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Hello Brian & All,
>
Brian said:
> What baffles me is why there is not a bigger push to get (COOL) Country of 
> Origin Labeling
> implemented on honey. IMO this is one of the key policy issues that could 
> be changed by our
> government  that would benefit the current state of US beekeeping and 
> should have been part of
> the recent Farm Bill.
>
I have fought for the above legislation for years but to no avail. in my 
opinion lobbyists from the large packers are the problem. I have not been 
able to get support from the two national groups because in my opinion a few 
of both leadership pack some foreign honey. Money seems to trump hard facts 
in Washington.

When we got the current label laws we saw a minor victory and thought we had 
a foot in the door to get what we were really after but we soon realized the 
packers simply agreed to a small reference to countries of source *without 
reference* to exact country of origin and the label implies the honey might 
even be from the U.S.. Simply a generic label.

Also we have had contacts in two of the largest packers before and our 
contacts have said many times labels saying *product of the U.S.A.* go on 
bottles of imported honey. Labels are on the honor system.

At a recent two state meeting of the MSBA & KHPA I brought a USDA label 
person to task on the subject. I was very hot (which I should not have been 
I suppose) but the crowd cheered when I sat down. I said that there were no 
label police and in the U.S. you can get away with whatever you want to put 
on your label.

As Eric pointed out there is no problem for the dishonest to put whatever 
they want on their label.

My current problem is a packer selling all his out of state honey as *local* 
and selling his pressure filtered & pasteurized honey with a raw label. 
After the K.C. Star paper did an article about his honey around ten of us 
called the reporter and complained to no avail! Our bee organization has 
complained to the health food stores he sells in and all Whole Foods says is 
" If he says the honey is raw or is local then that's all we can do". A 
local address does not mean the product is local.

I finally gave up trying to make the packer correct his labels but as Eric 
says the public is very gullible. The one thing most buyers read on a label 
is the area from which the packer is.

bob 


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