Organic Honey?

[The Soap Pixie]

Enlighten me please.

Is there such a thing as organic honey?

The topic came up briefly in my beek course at the University of Minnesota last year. If memory serves me well, I'm pretty sure Marla chuckled a bit before answering and then stated that in North America there was no such thing as organic honey since we can't control where our bees forage and a hive would have to be kept miles from a pesticide laden flower, plant, crop and there was no way to guarantee this with blow over and such. She did however defer to a group of beekeepers in class from Brazil that said they had hives (African) that were very remote and guaranteed organic. Those with knowledge on this topic in class were all in agreement.

I am asking this because I was on facebook tonight and a company I follow that sells certain products with beeswax claim their products are 100% organic and that they purchase their beeswax from a supplier in North America that keeps their hives 4 miles from any source of pesticides. Good marketing?

[sqkcrk]

Just because it says what it does, that does not mean it is true or accurate.

There is another Thread in progress on this subject.

[The Soap Pixie]

Can you point me in the right direction? I just went through thread titles and didn't find it.

[BeeCurious]

Maybe it's this one:

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251649

[The Soap Pixie]

Thank you!

[Omie]

I am asking this because I was on facebook tonight and a company I follow that sells certain products with beeswax claim their products are 100% organic and that they purchase their beeswax from a supplier in North America that keeps their hives 4 miles from any source of pesticides. Good marketing?

And does this 'wax supplier' keep their bees 4 miles away from all vegetation grown with chemical fertilizers, all sprayed crops and crops grown with treated seed, orchards or trees sprayed with fungicides, all homeowners with treated lawns and gardens, and all roads that have herbicides sprayed on the weeds and vegetation along their edges and guardrails? Somehow i doubt they can control all this within 4 miles in all directions of their hives. Isn't that over a 50 square mile area if I'm not mistaken?
With no laws to certify, regulate, and enforce organic honey in the US, in reality anyone can claim anything they like. I personally know people who sell things on a small scale that they grow or produce and mis-label as 'organic'. They are not 'evil' people, but personally I think they are being dishonest and cheating people by charging more. I've become much more cynical because of what i see. Frankly, I don't trust everyone who makes organic claims, especially with U.S. bees and bee products because bees travel miles to forage. Just my own 2 cents.

[The Soap Pixie]

Omie,

I appreciate your 2 cents!!

I have the same feeling about "organic" labels now. I use to buy into the organic honey label and, like now, find myself questioning other peoples claims on organic hive products.

I even find it funny on how strict of a radius bees have for foraging when it comes to these "organic standards". 4 miles? So if a bee were to go 4.1 miles are they not allowed back in the hive?

[jjgbee]

I could make a crop of honey and possibly call that crop organic. BUT! after that bloom is over, if I left the bees in that location, the bees would starve so they must be moved to a non organic location. Hence the hive would not be organic and the crop would not be organic. I find it hard to beleive that there is such thing as organic honey.

[sqkcrk]

What ever happened to Pure Honey? That used to be the standard descriptive word on many a honey label for ages.