Posted on 06/10/2010 11:21:28 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for a crackdown on a unique brand of laundering.
Not money or drug laundering, but honey.
Schumer, D-N.Y., announced yesterday that his office will press Immigrations and Custom Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Food and Drug Administration to more stringently regulate mislabeled honey brought into the country and the state by Chinese exporters.
Almost 10 years ago, Chinese honey became the subject of special taxes when it was found that Chinese honey traders were engaging in what Schumer called “predatory trade practices.” Schumer said, since then, those traders have gone to extraordinary lengths to circumvent those taxes to the tune of $100 to $200 million annually.
Methods used to avoid the taxes include intentionally mislabeling honey shipments with the wrong country of origin, setting up shell corporations and shipping through other countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
According to Schumer, that hurts beekeepers in New York, which is the 12th largest honey producer in the country.
“This trans-shipping or ‘honey laundering’ — that is, the intentional mislabeling of the country of origin — is costing the U.S. millions of dollars in unpaid duties and putting consumers at risk from honey contaminated with antibiotics, a problem common with Chinese honey,” Schumer said in a letter to FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
In 2009, New York apiaries produced over 3 million pounds of honey and made about $5.3 million in sales, but Schumer said that the industry is still being hurt by cheap honey from China.
The headline made me think of Eliot Spitzer and such politicians.
When I saw the title and names of NY politicians, I thought the article surely must be about Elliot Spitzer. (honey laundering).
Whoa. Beat me by 55 secs.
It’s nearly impossible to find fresh fruit or vegetables from the US except during special seasons. Table grapes any time of year except August/September are probably from outside the US.
Well given that it’s coming from China, it might very well have 10W-30 in it, if they’re having trouble meeting their quota that month.
A large honey producer in FL told me that when barrels of “honey” were being opened from China 2 years ago, the inspectors removed floating rats. Kinda makes your stomach turn.
A person is not allergic to the honey, but what’s in the honey. Pollen is extensively found in honey, as are viruses and other nasty things. This has been known for millenia. An ancient warrior king rebelling against the Romans left honey pots full after a supposed retreat from a battle. The Romans, ate the honey and got extremely ill, allow the king and his army to escape. The honey was made from flowers in the region that had a poisonous nectar, which didn’t affect the bees, but was known to the locals to be sickening...............Even in the Bible, a Proverb states that if you eat too much honey, you’ll get sick...........
Sweet & Sour Rat..mmmmmmm
Schumer scares me and I’m fearless!
What surprises me is that no one mentioned it for almost 15 minutes.
As a beekeeper, honey harvester, and honey enjoyer... I offer a honey tidbit of the day on the subject below. I note that unusable honey is VERY rare, and as far as I know, not a concern here in the US.
There are a few rare places where local honey is actually poisonous, via poisonous pollen. In these localities (I don't know of any in the US), bee keepers only collect harvestable honey outside of the problem pollen-producing timeframes... or don't collect at all. I believe there is someplace in Europe (Holland?) where a beekeeper is required to determine there are no poisonous-pollen producing plants within a certain radius of their hives.
Ive often wondered about honey from oleander blossoms.............
Schumer is a racist. Schumer is a racist.
As to pollen, the small amounts which are ingested actually help with allergies, like taking an allergy shot.
As to “viruses and other nasty things”, honey is a natural antibiotic which has been used for centuries to cover wounds because it will not allow bacteria to grow. It was used extensively during the Civil War for this purpose, whenever it could be found. In fact, many search and rescue groups still today keep honey for two purposes—one for wound dressing and the second for immediate energy due to the sugar and its ability to last forever. The “fear label” for children is for botulism which again is not an allergy and is not in the honey but on it as previously stated.
As to poisonous nectar, you are correct, but this again is not an allergy. Florida has three plants which can produce a poisonous nectar, none of which is known to cause more than a minor stomach ache if ingested in large amounts. One of them, a Titi plant, causes the bee brood to turn red and die. A second one, a yellow night blooming jasmine, will actually kill the bees, and the small amount that gets to the public has little to no effect on them. The third plant, which I forgot its name right now but I believe is only in the Keys, also has only a mild effect on humans. In the Appalachian Mountains there exists a plant called “mountain laurel” which can produce poisonous honey. The bees will only go to it if they are starving and nothing else is blooming. It tends to bloom even in large droughts when other plants will not bloom. From what I have read, there have been no reported deaths from it, but it can cause a person to hallucinate. Confederate soldiers found this out and used it to their advantage. Certain states in the SE have made efforts to eradicate this plant due to this problem, but again the effect is only there in large quantities.
As to honey in the Bible, it is one of the few foods which the Bible says is “good” for a person. This is in several places in Proverbs. Furthermore, a country was considered rich if it produced large quantities of honey; it was often used as a regular trading commodity due to its many positive qualities on the body and its ability to refrain from deterioration if kept covered—it has been found in crystallized form and still edible from Christ's time; John the Baptist grew up on wild honey; the last meal which Christ ate before his Ascension included honey.
“For millenia” people such as the Chinese have been tainting honey, but honey is only the vehicle for the poison, it is not the poison nor is it an allergen. Why do you think honey is used as the vehicle for poisons?? It is the one food which can last forever.
As to getting sick on honey, I can personally attest to that. It is a natural dieuretic, but to achieve this result it most be taken in large quantities. The Bible also tells us that one of the apostles drank wine for his stomach, while other sections of the Bible state that wine is a mockery, and a leader in the church must not be “taken to wine.” Neither wine nor honey is the problem, it is the indulgence of such.
Made in China ping!
I’m actually for this - pushes back on China, protects us (health and local beekeeper jobs)and the more taxes/tariffs on Chinese goods *hopefully* means less taxes out of my pocket.
Well, that explains West Virginia and Robert Byrd....................
I don’t agree with Chuck on very much, but I’m really glad to see someone address this matter. There’s a whole bunch of unscrupulous operators out there putting pretty labels on their honey bottles making them seem like they’re filled with wholesome, local honey from local honey producers, when in fact they are filled with cheap, inferior Chinese honey.
As a local bee keeper, I’d like to see imported honey inspected. However once “There oughta be a law starts” it almost never ends well.
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