Organic Honey is a Myth

[Trek]

A very eye opening article for honey lovers and beekeepers alike.

Don't let claims on honey labels dupe you

Kinda makes you not want to eat any honey unless you know the exact source.

 

[freebird5825]

I always got a kick out of the label "Pure Clover Honey". What did they do - keep the bees on leashes or use negative reinforcement to train them to only land on clover flowers ?
Good article

 

[Westernskies]

I always buy Organic Honey; the Inorganic variety is hard on my digetive tract.

 

[Trek]

Ya know, I never really considered all the pesticides and other pollutants a bee picks up as it journeys around making it's collection.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Never considered all the things that bees could contact while gathering their honey. I do know this. A friend in Ohio has a farm on which he has a field of white clover. He has bee hives and sent me a jar of that honey. That stuff was so clear you could almost see through it. However, I couldn't see where the taste was so much different. Just interesting because it looked so different.

 

[ziggy29]

What about honey produced by free range bees?

 

[WanderALot]

Man, another thing to worry about! The honey at my local Farmer's Market is just some local beekeeper guy. How do I know that guy isn't doctoring up the honey with sweeteners?

 

[FUEGO]

What about honey produced by free range bees?

And how do we know that the clovers which provide the pollen aren't genetically modified? This honey dilemma is really sticky.

 

[harley]

Seems sort of silly. I guess there's no organic beef either, because who knows if the field of grass where the cows eat contains dirt that was washed into the field during the last rain from the field up on the hill where they use pesticides .

As an ex-beekeeper I can pretty much guarantee that if your hives are in a huge field of clover, the bees will not be ranging miles looking for additional sources. I would be willing to bet you could claim 100% to any reasonable level of certainty.

The main point of the article is valid, though. There's no real regulation. Just buy honey, and if you don't like it, buy from somebody else next time. Like I do with vegetable stands.

 

[MichaelB]

Hey - I'm sure Whole Foods Market has bee inspectors that run alongside randomly selected bees to determine exactly what dirt and flowers they touch, and send samples back to the lab for rigorous testing.

I mean, why else would they charge so much?

 

[donheff]

Don't they study the dances to confirm that the bees are only going to suitable clover fields?

 

[FUEGO]

What I want to know is whether the white paint on the bee hives is organic? And were organic forestry methods used to grow the wood that goes into the smoker to calm the bees down?

 

[Bestwifeever]

My honey is one hundred percent natural--he told me so when we got married.

 

[harley]

The smokers we used to use contained oily rags, definitely not organic. The smokers for the bees, I mean. The ones we used ourselves contained totally natural, organic products.

 

[CuppaJoe]

My dental receptionist says you can cure allergies by eating local honey.
Here's the state flower buzz:

 

[Redbugdave]

I "bee"lieve most of the bulk honey we eat now a days comes from South America. My Honey is one of the best sweets around...

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Remember a couple years ago there was a problem with bees dying off? Some kind of virus I believe but I never heard anything more about that. Has the problem been solved?

 

[Redbugdave]

No Johnnie, the problem still exists. Pesticides, mites, and that wasting disease. I don't see any honey bees anymore where I live. Mostly bumblebees and solitary wasps. I also used to have a few hives in past years, but don't anymore. I've been thinking of maybe getting a few colonies started after I retire. But, having bees is not what it used to be because of the problems.

 

[freebird5825]

Remember a couple years ago there was a problem with bees dying off? Some kind of virus I believe but I never heard anything more about that. Has the problem been solved?

More than a few years ago...and still a problem
Cornell Science News: Bee disease and pollination

from http://ecgardening.cce.cornell.edu/email/Aug06/PageThree.html
Pollinators

Which one of the following is your favorite - apples, cherries, blueberries or squash and cucumbers? All these crops need insect pollination to either insure a really good crop or, in the case of cucumbers, depend entirely on insect pollination to produce a crop. The honey bee and bumblebee are extremely important in crop pollination. Unfortunately, the honeybee numbers are declining due to two factors. One is the introduction of several mite species which affect the health of the bees and the other is the use of pesticides which are toxic to honeybees.

 

[Nords]

Organic Honey is a Myth

Gosh, I don't see how it can be a myth-- it's in the grocery store right next to the organic maple syrup...