Is The Beekeeping Industry Under Attack? A Deep Dive into Fake Honey

There have been some things cooking in the beekeeping industry that I would really like to stand behind and help inform you on. Because as it stands today the beekeeping industry as a whole is in trouble. Starting with what is going on with honey. This morning I went to my local Kroger and it’s been awhile since I’ve really taken a look into what is on their shelves since as a beekeeper I have plenty of honey to go around. I've hear of many beekeepers complaining about dropping honey prices meanwhile the cost to produce honey is going up drastically. So after receiving my monthly issue of the American bee journal I decided it was time to start doing some research.

If you aren’t familiar with fake honey and what is going on in the industry, let me catch you up to speed real quick.

The Shocking Reality of Fake Honey

So what is fake honey? Fake honey refers to honey that has been blended with cheaper syrups like corn syrup or rice syrup to increase the volume and reduce costs. This allows the same batch of honey to stretch farther so that producers can make more money off of the same batch. As it stands today any testing we are doing is not adequate because 90% of the honey that you find in grocery stores contains these additives.

Why is fake honey so prevalent? Well, to reduce cost and increase profitability. I came across a post discussing this exact problem amongst commercial beekeepers and at first I thought the problem was that the honey packers were to blame for bringing the honey in to begin with. Which part of this is true as the requirements for labelling in America have a lot of loopholes. An example being that as long as a honey packing facility is located in the US, then they can put “made in the USA” on their label. Even though the honey that is in the bottle is coming from outside countries like Argentina, Spain, China, and India. But, because the packers home base is in America then they get to use that on their label. Same thing goes for honey that claims to be “made in Michigan” or “made in Texas” or “local” etc. As long as the packers address is in that state then they can claim that it is “local”.   

But, this isn’t the only problem.. the next problem is that with fake honey flooding the market and lowering honey prices, suppliers of real American honey can’t compete with the prices grocery stores are requiring in order to even get a spot on their shelves. So they take the lowest bider and the packer with the lowest price wins the deal. There have been a few packers that have used this tactic just to push smaller guys out so they can hog the market. They will repackage the exact same honey in a new bottle to shut out a different company from sitting on the shelf right beside them.

How can we spot the difference? Well, that’s the thing..unless you have been buying real honey from a beekeeper you know so that you are very familiar with how honey should taste then there isn’t any true way of knowing for sure. Fake honey will taste sweeter than real honey and it will be rather bland. Lacking any floral notes from the bees forage. It is also said that fake honey will dissolve in water almost immediately, where as real honey will sink to the bottom in a ball and dissolve slowly.

But there’s more to this problem…

The Impact on Beekeepers

Beekeeping today comes with a lot of upfront cost and honey sales is what many beekeepers use to survive on. So if honey prices continue to drop due to fake honey being imported then many beekeepers will face a loss of income and livelihood. In fact many beekeepers are already struggling with this today with some going into debt just to keep the operation going. And remember, a big portion of our food system today relies on pollination from honey bees so if beekeepers start going under then so will our food.

Some beekeepers have tried to make a stand and fight against this unfair competition. But business is ruthless and it’s hard to fight against big corporations that monopolize the market. Without any real change in the policies and regulations in labelling and what grocery stores allow onto their shelves, beekeepers are working with their hands tied behind their back.

But this is why I say the beekeeping industry is under attack.. As it stands today there are a lot of changes that policy makers are trying to make when it comes to the beekeeping industry. This year the EPA was planning to move all beekeeping regulation over to the FDA which would make varroa mite treatments only accessible through a veterinary prescription. Which with tropilaelaps mites currently on the horizon this would pose a drastic threat in which beekeepers would have access to the miticides they need to keep their bees alive. Luckily we have a Charles Linder a commercial beekeeper out of the midwest that has been making a stand to keep beekeeping under EPA regulations. He has drawn up a new proposal giving full access to organic acids used in the beekeeping industry to manage varroa mites. As it stands today formic acid is the only treatment we have currently that has shown the disrupt the tropilaelaps mite's breeding cycle. So if this mite does make an appearance in America, this will be all we have to fight against it. Currently organic acids are controlled and only allowed to be sold and used on bee hives under name brands. No generics or off label use is allowed. These organic acids pose no risk to man or the environment. If this new proposal was to get approved we could see a real turn in the industry and our fight against varroa as new treatments could be found.

Okay now lets talk about GeoCure. GeoCure is a new company that is currently working on convincing commercial beekeepers to sell out their outfit for a very lucrative price. We are currently entering what mantis calling the greatest transfer of wealth in our history as not only farmers and business owners but also commercial beekeepers are entering retirement age and are looking to sell off what they have built. Talk about perfect timing for GeoCure…they claim to have already bought 1.2 million bee hives meaning if they continue they will have a monopoly on the market and there will be no need for real beekeepers anymore. Many people are suspecting that GeoCure may be a foreign entity orchestrating this any responses they have sent after reaching out all round to be AI generated. Charles Linder has a great article about GeoCure in the November issue of ABJ if you’re interested in learning more about what is going on with this company.

So taking that all into account I don’t mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist but with what is going on with honey, our miticides, GeoCure it sounds a lot like beekeeping could possibly collapse and become a monopolized market if something isn’t done about it. I can see the strings, each thing having its place to put more pressure on beekeepers so that they can no longer sustain their operation and be forced to sell out. We’ve seen what has happened with agriculture and farming as a whole, are they now making their move towards beekeepers so the our path to freedom away from the system is only an illusive thought?

Okay, but we can’t forget…yes the beekeeper is important but now what about the honey bees? How does any of this effect them?

Where we stand today, America has more honey bee colonies than any time in history. So honeybees are by no means endangered like some media outlets like to promote. The real problem is something called colony collapse disorder. It was a term that was coined in 2006-2007, describing the sudden loss or death of a colony without any real reason to explain why. Some of the factors that are being considered to cause this outbreak are pesticides, mites, fungi, beekeeping practices, malnutrition, poor quality queens, starvation, other pathogens or viruses, and immunodeficiencies. Since 2006, beekeeping practices have changed drastically to help account for this and I believe to be a big contributor as to why honey bees aren’t “endangered”.

So what can you do? Because you can in fact make a difference.

Educate yourself about fake honey and how to spot it

• Support ethical and sustainable beekeepers, there are local beekeepers in almost any state, today and we are blessed to have a platform like Facebook where we can connect and find people to support.
• Demand transparency and accountability from honey producers, Use your money to vote for you. Stop supporting honey from the grocery store, talk to your local grocery store management expressing the concern and why you will no longer be purchasing honey that is not guaranteed to be real. The more people that can bombard them with this the more likely for us to see a change.
• Help educate your friends and family and other people in your community. Share this video with them so that they too can see what is actually going on. There is power in consumer awareness.
• Send letters to your legislative board demanding a change, we need to see stricter regulations on how we label our honey, how we test incoming honey, and maybe even propose a tariff on all honey coming into America.

If we are going to make a difference in what is happening today its going to take people like you and me to stand up and make a change.

 

BEEKEEPING IS UNDER ATTACK!! And I need your help! Beekeeping 101 #beekeeping

https://youtu.be/XS740fIm9Ik?si=1R90CBH3Vj80pQhQ