How can organic farms sell non-organic produce?

[bharminder]

For example, I was at my local health food store and looking at honey. One of the products, called Y.S. Organic Bee Farms Raw Honey, seems organic because it is labeled from an organic farm. But right next to it, the same company Y.S. Organic Bee Farm has another jar of honey that is 100% organic raw honey.

How can the first product be non-organic if it comes from an organic farm?

[Revvell]

Call 'em and ask. Maybe they're just in the midst of changing labels.

[Dimond]

Many farms offer both options. It's just like with almonds. Usually they have a portion that's pasteurized, while the rest isn't. Basically to give cheaper options while being able to make a good profit.

[kaybee]

their hives are probably located in different areas, one area where the bees forage is proabably certified organic, but the other isnt. so the honey from the hives in organic areas can be sold as organic but the other honey cant. ive heard that having really organic honey is hard though because bees can travel up to 2 miles.

[RawKnitster]

I recently went to a lecture titled "The Secret Life of Bees". It was presented at Bastyr University by a local beekeeper. I learned a lot about the different methods used to produce honey and bee products. From now on, I will only buy honey directly from the person that is taking it out of the hive.

The following is from an article I found in a local paper that covers a few of the questions about organic honey and labeling.

"For American-made honey, the "organic" boast, experts say, is highly suspect. Beekeepers may be doing their part, but honeybees have a foraging range of several miles, exposing them to pesticides, fertilizers and pollutants on their way back to the hive.

And while they're required to put the country of origin on the label -- a fact that could help guide wary consumers -- some honey producers don't bother.

The head of one major honey company advises caution and warns that in the United States, there's confusion over label terminology and inconsistent enforcement of labeling laws.

"There is honey out there that is illegally and purposely mislabeled, an adulterated product that is very difficult to stop," said Dwight Stoller, chief executive of Kansas-based Golden Heritage Foods. "There's probably not a lot, but it's still a real issue, and consumers must be aware of that."

Unless shoppers buy honey from a farmers market, where they can talk with the person who raised the bees and bottled the honey, they're relying on what's printed on the label.

Major supermarkets offer dozens of different brands, sizes, types and flavors of honey for sale. Consumers might walk away with the finest-tasting, highest-quality honey there is. Or they could end up with an unlabeled blend, adulterated with impossible-to-detect cheap sweeteners or illegal antibiotics.

Part of this is because of the government's failure to define what true honey is, but the blame also goes to a handful of sleazy honey packers who buy and sell cut-rate foreign honey, which usually has little problem slipping past overstretched customs inspectors."

If you want to see the entire article, you can find it here (http://www.seattlepi.com/local/394198_honey31.asp).

[kaybee]

oh yeah, also forgot, if you google it, i guess some "producers" feed their bees sugar water so that what you are getting is bee- processed sugar water instead of bee-processed nectar....

[Mary Kay]

This is not true about the sugar water. I was a beekeeper and they will only give to bees in times of starvation. They do not then put this into the comb.

HTH,

Mary Kay

[RawKnitster]

oh yeah, also forgot, if you google it, i guess some "producers" feed their bees sugar water so that what you are getting is bee- processed sugar water instead of bee-processed nectar....

A good beekeeper (like Mary Kay :)) and the beekeepers I met would only use sugar water sparingly under certain conditions. There are large scale honey producers in the U.S. and around the world that feed the bees ONLY sugar water. That honey might not have the medicinal qualities that "true" honey has, yet it is still called honey.

The beekeeper told me the honey and bee products from China are the worst regarding the use of chemicals, sugar water feeding, and being adulterated. Producers in the U.S. have been busted by the U.S.D.A. for blending their honey with honey from China and not putting it on the label.

Just another reason to buy from the source, a local beekeeper.

[kaybee]

yeah my parents used to have bees and they used the sugar water only as a supplement at a certain time of year or something (though even use of it makes me wonder if when it needs to be used "in times of starvation" is because we took too much of the honey that they would have lived off of had we not taken too much...?) i do think most small local beekeepers are going to be ethical in this respect. but i was talking about the sort of thing rawknitster is talking about.