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You buy supermarket commodity honey like “Sue Bee” and the honey comes from anywhere. It says so on the label.

You sure about that? "Sue Bee" is a grower co-op and they've always been adamant that they only sell 100% US honey.

In light of recent reports in the media of tainted or adulterated foods, Sue Bee Honey would like to reiterate to the American consumer its longstanding commitment to quality. "All Sue Bee Honey sold in grocery stores in the United States is 100% American and 100% pure," according to Sue Bee Honey President and Chief Executive Officer David Allibone.

Private label or store brand honey packaged by Sue Bee Honey also is 100% American and 100% pure. When Sue Bee states “100% American or American grown,” it is referring to honey bees owned by American beekeepers producing honey in the U.S. and pollinating U.S. crops.

Sure, buy from the little guy if you can, but if you can't, I don't think "Sue Bee" is a bad second choice. I just posted because I don't want people to bypass an American product just because of an internet posting.

I had beehives 17 years ago so I have been following this. When I read Sue Bee honey labels they used to state other countries that the honey may or may not come from. China was one and IIRC Brazil was one of a few others. Maybe Sue Bee has a no-imports policy now due to consumer pressures but that is not how it used to be. Sue Bee was one of the first and one of the big honey importers.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/397445_honey26.html
Sue Bee Vice President Bill Huser said 315 different beekeepers supply 60 percent of the 40 million pounds of honey the Iowa-based company sells each year. The rest is imported.
To protect consumers, Huser said, the company does extensive and elaborate testing on the imported honey, finding shipments laced with chloramphenicol, an illegal antibiotic, about once a month.
When it's found, he said, it's sent back to the broker who imported it.
Won't report it to FDA
That doesn't sit well with some members of the cooperative. Several told the P-I that returning tainted honey to the marketplace is wrong. They said the issue has been raised in recent years, but the company has refused to change its policy.
Bill Allibone, Sue Bee's president, said the company has no intention of telling government regulators about the bad honey it finds.
"We deal with a core group of suppliers that have long, established ties in the import business, and we're assuming that when we reject a load of honey, they'll return it to the people they purchased it from."
Allibone said he has no idea whether the tainted honey is resold to other U.S. packers. Asked whether the company had an obligation to take action to protect the public health, the president repeated: "It's just not our honey."

"Truck drivers tell us about bringing full semi loads of foreign honey across the border to packers in our state and Oregon. That honey didn't come from Canadian bees, but it's sold with a label saying 'from U.S. and Canadian honey.' "

So 40% of Sue Bee honey is imported? Oh, yeah, this association is really helping the American BeeKeeper, aren't they.

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Seattle P_I Investigates Honey Laundering
“Two-thirds of the honey Americans consume is imported and almost half of that, regardless of what’s on the label, comes from China, the Seattle P-I reported last month.
The newspaper’s five-month investigation into honey laundering — the intentional mislabeling of the country of origin — found that tons of Chinese honey coming into the U.S. is tainted with banned antibiotics.
But when the contamination is discovered by the industry through internal testing, insiders say, federal health or customs officials are almost never notified, and the honey ends up being dumped back on the market.”
…Testimony from federal investigators and informants offer a glimpse into a typical deal: Wolff (a German import/export house) sold Chinese honey to a U.S. honey producer. The packer tested the shipment and found traces of antibiotics. Wolff took the honey back and resold it to another packer who didn’t test for contaminants.
If convicted, the Wolff executives face up to five years in prison for conspiring to falsify country of origin on the Chinese shipments.
In its series, the P-I reported that it had received shipping papers showing that Chinese honey, falsely labeled as a product of India, was sold to several U.S. honey packers, including one of the nation’s largest — Sue Bee Honey Association.”
Excuse me – Sue Bee? We’re talking “Mom and Apple Pie” here – their ‘queen shaped’ jars are on every grocer’s shelves in America. Sue Bee is buying up Chinese honey – falsely labeled as to origin? Now, why would Chinese producers want people to think that their honey came from someplace else?