[Daffynition]

[brytlea]

Cool shot, did you take it?

[weegee]

Part of this is because of the government's failure to define what true honey is,

Our "government" cannot even be truthful about the meaning of the word IS.

[kbennkc]

Insist on Yack's honey from eastern Utah . You will be fine .

[weegee]

The article casts a wide net.

Says that even if it’s honey, it may not be “organic” because the plants, many miles away, that the bees collect honey from may not be 100% organic (or even fair trade farms). Flies land on animal waste too.

The OTHER beef the author has is that honey-flavored foods may not contain a significant quantity of honey. Here’s some other breaking news, tofu hot dogs DO NOT CONTAIN BEEF, PORK, or even DOG!

[Mr. Jeeves]

"If somebody puts 'U.S. Grade A' on there, who's going to say it isn't?" said Harriet Behar, outreach coordinator with the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service. "There's no enforcement, so people can say whatever they want."

Sounds like honey producers took a lesson from the bond rating agencies. ;)

[DManA]

Take your mind off it by remembering that you’re eating BEE SPIT!!

[Red_Devil 232]

Garden - Honey Ping

[o_zarkman44]

Environmentalist minds have too much time on their hands if they are worrying about how to micromanage bee hives, and raise the price of honey with expensive tests and regulations.

My honey comes from just about 12 miles down the road and thats good enough for me.

[Cold Heart]

I had raised bees for a period of time. I have never tasted honey as good as from those bees. I always suspected that commercial honey was not the same as mine. I recently opened my last jar of 25 year old honey and shared it with family members. Best honey they ever had was their comment.

[Ditter]

Interesting thanks. I buy Texas Wildflower Honey from the Stroope Honey Farm in Pearland Texas. I met the man who owns the company while he and his wife were delivering it to Whole Foods . This article raises some questions that I had not thought to ask.

[SeeSharp]

It seems unlikely that honey could contain any noticeable amount of pesticide. That would kill the bees.

[DariusBane]

I think we need a Honey Czar. A cabinet level position, and a gigantic new bureaucracy to rival TSA. No way can we continue to allow honey to be sold with no regulation. We need government standards, testing, inspection, of the entire supply chain. We pay for it by taxing... hmm... howz bout we tax gasoline? Screw that lets just tax BTU’s. And all animate objects! Yes! What fun! Oh, lets tax cell phones even though they are inanimate objects!!!! Here we go if it moves, if it does not move, and if it makes heat, or cold lets tax it!!!!!!!

[Cloverfarm]

I’m just glad we can get some from our cousin down the road. If they are sold out we read labels and buy as locally as possible.

[DesertSapper]

Not “organic”? Is honey now made of plastic?

[B-Chan]

I love honey, so I insist on the best. We buy local honey (made by Texas bees in Weatherford, Texas!) at the farmer’s market around the corner from our house. It’s packed in a mason-type jar with a label that was printed on a desktop printer, and it still has the comb in it.

Local honey is said to have properties beneficial to those who suffer from seasonal pollen allergies, as I do.

[JACKRUSSELL]

Honey brokers and scientists say that not only is Chinese honey being laundered in other countries to avoid stiff U.S. tariffs and inspections, but also it's being sold as "malt sweetener," "blended syrup" and "rice syrup."

Florida's inspectors say some honey exported from China and India is put through an ultra-filtration process that is meant to remove contaminants. Honey is heavily diluted with water, then repeatedly boiled and filtered until it returns to a more natural consistency. Those who have tested and tasted the filtered brew said the process can completely remove all traces of contaminants, "including the color."

...The label on Heins Organic Trail Honey, packaged by Pure Foods, errs on the side of overdisclosure, listing five countries of origin: U.S., Canada, China, Argentina and Australia. Ingalls, however, said that, too, isn't exactly right: He no longer imports from China and is just using up old labels.



A ping list dedicated to exposing the quality, safety and security issues of anything “Made in China”.


Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.

(This can be a high volume ping list.)

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Seems that if you want organic honey, you don’t want it to come from bees that forage crops that are sometimes sprayed. As the article notes, there can be no guarantee that the bees were monogamous towards their organic orchard.

A solution for those of us who prefer to limit our second-hand pesticide intake would seem to be to purchase desert honey, such as mesquite. Less or no spraying of desert crops like that. Tasty, full-flavored honey, too!

[JoeProBono]

[SunkenCiv]

I tried agave syrup the other day, surprisingly similar in taste to other syrups, at least when used on food (in my case, cooked oatmeal). Never heard of it prior to that.

The Truth about Agave Syrup:
Not as Healthy as You May Think
by John Kohler
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/agave.html

[Lafayette]

There are all kinds of issues at work here. There are enough honeybee pests that beekeepers are often forced to use pesticides in their hives. These pesticides get into the wax and eventually some of it gets into the honey. There are some passionate beekeepers (mostly hobbiests like me) who are doing "integrated pest management" to avoid pesticides if at all possible. I also try not to smoke my bees as the smoke is a contaminant.

Bees do forage for miles around the hive and there is no telling what they will bring home. If a neighbor misapplies a pesticide (Sevin for example) and the bees drag it back to the hive, you can end up with a large pile of dead bees in front of your hive, and a hive that may collapse.

Raw, unprocessed honey contains enzymes and flavors that are destroyed by heat. It also can contain small amounts of salmanella which is why it shouldn't be fed to humans under one year of age (although there is debate about that, too). Those enzymes are much of what gives honey its healing properties. Raw honey is absolutely the best thing for burns. Most store-bought honey is pasteurized which destroys the enzymes and much of the flavor.

Beekeeping is a great hobby. It is not all that expensive and it is one way to guarantee the quality of your honey.