My local customers know where my honey is produced. I don't need a certification label to show them that. I put a label on the bottle that says "local honey". That allows anyone that wants to test my honey themselves(their cost) to see if it did come from WI to do so. If the test shows it didn't then I would be false advertising. On the store shelves honey bottles have the country of origin stamped somewhere on it. They just don't stamp china on it when that is where it comes from. Wouldn't it be easier to just have the county, state, or country of origin on the label. If that is falsified then action could be taken(fines). Just because a label says certified doesn't mean squat. Look at the certified organic trend, lots of that is a joke. Just because someone pays for the certification of their honey doesn't mean that is the only honey they will use. Once the label says certified, just like many other things, people will believe what the label says when it may or may not be true. Wouldn't the USDA just be better off spending their money to prove what packers are using chinese honey(or other honey blends) that is bypassing tariffs and is mislabeled then charge them accordingly. Instead they want to go after the innocent and make them pay for what the crooks are doing. Just like the gun laws, go after the law abidding citizens that own guns while the crooks still have theirs and would continue to have them even if they were banned. A crook is a crook and that is how he operates. The honest man has a hard enough time making a living without more restrictions being applied to him. A law defining pure honey(not blended with sugar,corn syrup, rice syrup, etc.) and a law stating place of origin needs to be on the label is all that is needed. If either one of those are falsified then action would be taken with fines large enough to pay for the program doing the testing. With fines large enough the crooks would change their ways or be out of business. While at the same time Joe Schmoe beekeeper can continue with his honesty instead of being run out of business because of over regulating standards.
