New Push to ban Chinese honey dumpers

[Storm]

I don't know if anyone else has posted on this, but I found some interesting articles about the latest push to get the FDA to regulate purity in imported honey.  With the rash of illegal/quasi-legal honey imports from Chinese "dumpers" this has again become a hot topic in Congress. 

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/102825-schumer-honey-laundering-a-sticky-problem

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/30/AR2010063005309.html

http://conrad.senate.gov/pressroom/record.cfm?id=276745

Not only is the Chinese honey hurting domestic production by undercutting prices (by diluting their product), but much of this honey is tainted with treatments banned from the US food market.  The FDA is resisting setting up standards, saying it would "overtax" their already busy employees.

On the other hand, I've never been one to really like more regulations on business.  Perhaps the solution is for the current import tariffs to be enforced more stringently?  What are your thoughts?

[CountryBee]

Wow!  I never knew, thanks. :)

[caticind]

I'm not generally in favor of extensive regulation either, but the FDA is one regulatory agency I do support wholeheartedly!  The market just can't provide people with enough information about what is in food and medicines, and with crooks able to mix toxic or unsafe ingredients in that people can't detect even if they are careful (like melamine in children's formula, tasteless but deadly), there is a real need for some oversight and enforcement backed up by a lab.

[gardeningfireman]

Personally, I think this country is it's own worst enemy. We let our companies move to other countries, we send financial aid to every armpit of a nation that whimpers, and we import WAY too much crap!  We need to take care of ourselves first, and THEN maybe help someone else with the leftovers. Ban the honey imports altogether, fine the pants off of companies that move elsewhere and put us out of work, and help the poor areas and disaster-hit parts of THIS country. The hell with Haiti, and Mexico and Iraq, etc. FEMA refused to help the Toledo, OH area after a tornado ripped through causing millions of dollars in damage and killing 11 people. They said it "wasn't bad enough". But hey, lets rebuild Haiti and Iraq  better than what parts of our own country are! And while we're at it, lets give our hard earned money and rights to ILLEGAL immigrants who shouldn't be allowed to stay here anyway! Sorry about the rant, I know it's misplaced. I love this country; it's the government that scares the hell out of me.

[beerman]

I agree with you garden 100%  better yet close more schools and give all the politicians raises.
US Army vet

[slacker361]

i am a liberal, but more so in the middle not way out on the end, but what ever happened to the word "NO"

as in no china we dont want your freaking crap anymore, we dont want you poison toothpaste, we dont want you lead toys, we dont want you freaking poison honey.


we still own this country and it is about time to take it back

[AllenF]

It is amazing how fast they took chinese dog food off the shelves, but they can not stop "sweeteners" from china.

[CountryBee]

Hey slacker361 where did "i am a liberal" come from?  Is this a conscience issue?  I thought we were discussing contaminated imported honey product! :-P

[slacker361]

It comes from the philosophy of saying "NO". No more bull crap. Liberals that are way out have more of an ideal of live and let live.  But there are limits. That is why I am more in the middle. That is where it came from

[BjornBee]

I'm not generally in favor of extensive regulation either, but the FDA is one regulatory agency I do support wholeheartedly!  The market just can't provide people with enough information about what is in food and medicines, and with crooks able to mix toxic or unsafe ingredients in that people can't detect even if they are careful (like melamine in children's formula, tasteless but deadly), there is a real need for some oversight and enforcement backed up by a lab.

Just be glad our own industry including the honey board, has been against random testing of our own honey in this country for years. I think the public would be shocked at some of the chemicals, including many illegal used by beekeepers, if ever they tested.

Stopping illegal or fake honey, which compresses price is one thing. Standing holier than thou (not suggesting anyone in particular), suggesting we have a pure food product ourselves is another.

And don't kid yourselves. It all comes down to money. Many big packers may want clean honey, or the stoppage of fake honey which does compress price. But they still want FORIEGN honey to which they make huge money.

One of the fundamental topics of the National Honey Bee Day, is the promotion not just of beekeeping, but the support of local agriculture, local farming, local beekeeping, and local honey. Most state agriculture departments, have marketing and promotion of these principles. But it is very hard to get higher level bee associations, or larger beekeepers (many of which are packers of foreign honey), to support such basic ideas, since they are making huge amounts of money off foreign honey. They want clean honey, they want pure honey, but they still want the foreign honey.  

The smaller beekeeper, to which I am sure many are reading this, will not be impacted by any states pure honey laws. You will still be competing with huge packers, foreign honey, and dominated by large packers.

Your angle (for most small beekeepers) is the promotion of local agriculture, a pure raw product, and  local honey. And for most, honey prices for such a product has been very stable over the years, void of most effects of swings in the international honey prices. Local raw honey has always brought a premium. And it always will.

Getting tainted and fake honey off the market is a good thing. But I still think that in the end, it's always the small guys who suffer the most through additional regulation and restrictions.

[Livefreeordie]

Exactly right Mike, more regulation ALWAYS hurts the smaller guy more. Learn how to market your local honey, by using the advice you mentioned. Been in business before and used some of those same strategies to very good result.

[diggity]

I'll bet the Europeans wouldn't put up with it - why do we?

For what it's worth, I'm a liberal too (and proud of it!).

-Diggity

[winginit]

I don't trust any food from China. Nothing against China per se, just a fact of life.

I was at an economics conference once with lots of foreign companies, many of whom had set up manufacturing in China and were failing at it. Except for one Chinese-American strategic planner, from Corningware I believe. They manufactured their product in China. BUT they had lots of expats managing the assembly and they strictly controlled all raw materials. She was adamant that no raw materials could be sourced from China.

I spent a little time studying their water industry. They can't protect their people from industrial water pollution. It is an enormous problem, and in 2007/2008 there were hundreds of demonstrations against the government (surprising for China). But people are dying so fast from contaminated drinking water that they may as well risk demonstrating. Infant mortality rates are soaring. There are "cancer villages" where death rates from liver, stomach, oesophageal, and cervical cancers are extraordinarily high.

Maybe someone can elighten me: Why would we allow any food products from China? While some food may be okay, there is a high percentage that is unsafe by any standard. And there is no way we can test it all.

[Scadsobees]

Because if we outlaw imports or certain types of imports such as food, so will the other countries.  And if I'm not mistaken, most of our exports are food.

Obviously some oversight is needed.  Besides, 100 gallons of good honey will dilute 10 gallons of tainted honey satisfactorily.

I think the only real way to stop it is on price.

Besides, we DO want those imports.  Well, maybe not this little group, but Americans want cheap stuff, myself included.  (I mean I like cheap stuff, not that I AM cheap stuff.... ;)).  We're addicted to cheap toys, cheap appliances, cheap computers, cheap clothes cheap honey cheap food etc etc.

[slacker361]

I agree with you to a certain point on liking cheep stuff, however, I I want to buy something that I want to last, I will spend the extra cash to try and be sure that it does last longer. No on disposables I will agree 100 %  cheep

[winginit]

I don't know how much we import in the way of food from China, but I don't think it is much. We may export a lot of food to China. China is having to reconsider its "food independence" goal, in light of the fact that it's depleted groundwater supplies and is facing desertification on a pretty large scale.

While we don't want a trade war, seems like there might be a diplomatic way to ban food without inciting one. The Chinese know they have a problem. But I'm no trade expert.

[diggity]

I don't have statistics handy, but I'll bet we import more than you think.  A few things I've noticed recently: First, in grocery stores here in the Northeast, you can buy apples from China year-round.  Do apples not grow in the Northeast?  Of course they do!  Fabulously well, as a matter of fact.  So why are we importing them (even in September, when they are ripening in our own fields)?

Another example, many stores are now carrying bagged vegetables (many of which even bear the label "organic") which are imported from China.  Imagine my surprise when I went to buy a bag of frozen organic asparagus, with a bucolic picture of a farmer in his field with the sun setting - turn over the bag and it's from China!  I'm sure in some corporate profit-driven perspective it makes perfect sense, or else they wouldn't do it.  But from the perspective of a quality-conscious, health-conscious, environment-conscious consumer, it's just plain stupid.  Buy it local, folks... or even better yet, grow your own!

-Diggity

[CountryBee]

Slacker361
diggity
I am more conservative than you two. :evil:
http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/other/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/

[Livefreeordie]

Slacker361
diggity
I am more conservative than you two. :evil:
http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/other/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/

Excellent...a kindred spirit. :-*

[CountryBee]

Thank you Livefreeordie, thought maybe I was one of the last ones in the United States of America.  We should all be free to do what we want to do.  That is why we left where our granddads came from, freedom, not governmental control.  And how do you get that control -fear!  I am not afraid!  I can work, fight, own, think, grow, reason, learn, all by myself without them telling me or helping me.  I own my land, have many children with my wife, go to church on Sundays, work all week and overtime, drive fords, motorcycles, and anything else I want to do.  This is still America!  Everyone else has the right to do what they want to do also, it is freedom.  I do not tell them how to live, they leave me and my family alone.  All my uncles and my two grandfathers(when they were here) served in the marines and fought for this freedom, not just talked.  I broke too much to serve.  I love my country.  I love being able to raise honey bees too! :-D  Thanks :)