A far cry from the innocent image of Winnie the Pooh with a paw stuck in the honey pot, the international honey trade has become increasingly rife with crime and intrigue. In the U.S., where bee colonies are dying off and demand for imported honey is soaring, traders of the thick amber liquid are resorting to elaborate schemes to dodge tariffs and health safeguards in order to dump cheap honey on the market, a five-month Seattle P-I investigation has found.
The business is plagued by foreign hucksters and shady importers who rip off conscientious U.S. packers with honey diluted with sugar water or corn syrup — or worse, tainted with pesticides or antibiotics.
Among the P-I’s findings: Big shipments of contaminated honey from China are frequently laundered in other countries — an illegal practice called “transshipping” — in order to avoid U.S.import fees, protective tariffs or taxes imposed on foreign products that intentionally undercut domestic prices.
In a series of shipments in the past year, tons of honey produced in China passed through the ports of Tacoma and Long Beach, Calif., after being fraudulently marked as a tariff-free product of Russia. Tens of thousands of pounds of honey entering the U.S. each year come from countries that raise few bees and have no record of producing honey for export.
The government promises intense scrutiny of honey crossing our borders but only a small fraction is inspected, and seizures and arrests remain rare.
The feds haven’t adopted a legal definition of honey, making it difficult for enforcement agents to keep bad honey off the shelves.
I keep forgetting… Is China poor, third world nation that is going through growing pains to modernization, or a rich first worlder with world class Olympics, industry, high education standards and a massive military export industry?
BTW, in T.O., we have a fantastic farmers market on Saturday loaded with local produce and meats… including honey. Of course, now that it’s winter, you local choices are turnips, rutabagas, squash, squash and squash.
Oh paleeze how can you say this, our government assured us long ago that trade with China was safe, would always be safe, and that all products imported are safe, along with the trade being good for the economy, that it would help stop global cooling, would increase the GNP, and would save the worker bees in America from having to work more what their labor contract allowed. The government also had to allow the honey trade to grow, to keep environmental groups like the Sierra Bee Club off their back. Lawsuits are expensive and are causing more problems in America than speculators who are betting on what other things might be causing us to get stung.
“The feds haven’t adopted a legal definition of honey, making it difficult for enforcement agents to keep bad honey off the shelves.”
For some reason the word “lobbyist” pops inside my head when it comes to blame someone for this.
Good honey,
Costs money.
CHINESE TRADE MAD LIBS
A shipment of __________ originating from China was found to be contaminated with ____________, a toxin that is known to cause ____________.
i can vouch for the “funny honey” aspect..
i have found more and more honey being “cut” with
f’n corn syrup..even of brands historically “pure”
are guilty as of late.. -finding raw honey or honey still in the comb (the only honey you should use anyway) is next to impossible unless you know where to go..
i suspect its due mainly for profit reasons. more importantly, however, our local (USA) bees are dying or going mad/getting lost at an alarming rate..
(just any almond grower)
doing some research a few years ago, i found some correlations between EM fields as well as Cell towers and bees vanishing.
further along, since beekeepers tend to use corn syrup to feed them in transit and given the proliferation of GMO corn (and its subsidies – amongst other things) -i imagine this is just making
matters worse. esp given the proven fertility issues GMO studies abroad have brought to light as of late.
can’t wait to see what the GMO wheat they are about to plague the planet with results in.
nonetheless…as someone who cooks (and was brought up on home cooked food) and never really experienced processed foods.. the taste of everything in the last 5yrs+ has changed drastically. honey is no exception.
even one of the few minimally processed things i use.. Hellman’s Mayonnaise..taste like utter crap now. wtf?
what happen? -his college educated kid take over the business?
-ever try and find decent olive oil that doesn’t show 5+ countries as it’s source?
::sigh::
-s
A trade freeze with China would be in order. Not just honey, pet food, milk products, toys, … . Everything. When China gets its house in order then may, Maybe we could resume normal relations.
I would include any country not providing safe working conditions, fair pay, freedom of the press, and decent protections from dirty, opressive governments.
The US Congress and the Federal Government has been a prostitute for agriculture, for many a decade (if not a century or two). Giving blank check approval of nearly everything, regardless of health concerns. It’s only taken measures to block certain crops, that might compete with those its lobbyists feel threatened by. Like Hemp. While Tobacco gets an indefinite “grandfathered” approval, in spite of all evidence of it injurious and addictive effects. Congress banned Alcohol sales, some nine decades ago, only because it saw a growing religious fanaticism about, that they knew they could exploit for political gains. Most of Congress and the then President, all drank like fish, with the rest of the country. And probably only repealed the Act when it because obvious how much money their was to be made by its sale. And Kennedys made their family fortune in Rum smuggling.
But since then, Congress hasn’t the balls to forbid anything coming on the market from anywhere, if enough profit is involves. Which labels them as the sellouts they are. While governments in other countries, like Japan, often ban US grown crops, when they threaten local crops’ sales.
And while you may be able to avoid buying bottled honey, in the stores. Can you avoid all the processed foods that claim they’re flavored with “honey”? Where is that honey coming from? Is it also contaminated or fake?
6,
So true. I make meals every day for my family from raw ingredients. Maybe I can of tomatoes here and there, but generally, if it doesn’t have dirt or blood on it, I’m not using it. Also, I now shop seasonally almost exclusively at the local farmers market. There is nothing more depressing that buying a tomato that looks red, is shaped tomato like but tastes like acid and sadness.
BUt you’re dead on about the Mayo. I can’t even enjoy it anymore. My fries now go naked…
The best honey I’ve had was in Israel. Sweet, and thick. The domestic stuff in the US, sold at the super market, is absolute crap by comparison. Milk too was much better in Israel. Our way of life has destroyed even the simple pleasures.
Named — Make it yourself. Get a stick mixer I’ve got a “Bamix”). Choose your oil. Run hot water from tap, when it’s HOT fill bowl or coffee cup, then stick egg in it for 10 minutes. Put egg in large container, add oil and maybe powered sugar, then mix.
Check out this story about Chinese drywall:
Chinese Drywall Cited in Building Woes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123171862994672097.html
In the early 1900’s it was predicted that in the future “War” would be based on economics.
This War has come and the USA is losing because we haven’t made the “paradigm shift” necessary to change with the changing realities. Its why we are still buying and designing the 3-4th generation of stealth combat vehicles instead of building a core of foreign speaking intelligence agents—etc.
11,
I do 99% of my cooking manually. Mayonnaise was my one mother sauce I left to the corporations. And they’ve failed.
I’ve made my own mayo about 10-12 times. It always tastes very good but it “breaks” into a soupy mess before enough oil is added making a successful batch very heavy on eggs and more expensive as a result. ((When it breaks, just start over with a fresh egg yolk and treat the soup mixture as you “oil” and rebuild your emulsion.–no waste, just frustration.))
I’ve gone back to store bought and the taste is worth the convenience.
# 6 soundwqash said, “further along, since beekeepers tend to use corn syrup to feed them in transit and given the proliferation of GMO corn (and its subsidies – amongst other things)”
I know a beekeeper in CA who produces a lot of specialty honey (apple, orange, etc). They aren’t fed in transit as there are frames in the bottom box for the bees to store their honey in. Only the “supers” have the honey that is taken from the hive.
I’ve never seen ANY domestic honey sold in the supermarket that is “cut”.
#15 – Bobbo
>>it “breaks” into a soupy mess before enough
>>oil is added
That’s because you left out the MUSTARD.
When I lived in Pakistan I noted how many items had “Made in Mexico” printed on them. I mean LOTS of stuff — sometimes even well-known brand names.
It seemed odd that Pakistan would import so much stuff from Mexico. Finally, I figured out that these were destined for sale in America, via Mexico, under NAFTA.
18–Greg==could you spell this out more? I’m thinking you mean the items were actually made in China–shipped to Mexico for sale in America–but the excess was shipped to Pakistan==all showing the economics of scale and how cheap container shipping is?
Doesn’t mean anything if the items were actually made in Mexico?
Har!
Many Mayo recipes do call for a bit of Mustard == certainly not the amount dolloped out on this website.
In fact, “Good Eats” which more than any other show, specializes in the chemistry of cooking and Alton Brown adds a bit of Mustard==all to help emulsify the oil and egg. Many recipes do not use mustard stating that is what the egg yolk with an addition of lemon juice/vinegar is better at doing.
Whatever–the directions are easy, but I’m missing some elusive “something” to make it pleasurable and to use fewer eggs. From the Epicurous website from an unrelated thread, I got the idea it might be the fact I use eggs directly from the refrigerator.
So many variables.
Totally Off Topic—
Mr. Fusion, bobbo, I left something for you here at #165 and #168.
And now, back to our regular programming.
WTF? #12 Frank cites a Wall Street Journal article about Chinese drywall poisoning homes in South Florida and my mind boggled! How can it possibly be cheaper to ship heavy, relatively fragile, damaged-by-water-or-even-heavy-humidity drywall ten thousand or fourteen thousand miles from China to South Florida than to use American-made stuff?
It seems to me that even if the stuff were free on the docks, shipping that distance should cost more than the stuff sells for here. Am I that far off?
#21, bobbo,
Many Mayo recipes do call for a bit of Mustard == certainly not the amount dolloped out on this website.
HEY, c’mon now, who doesn’t like a little mustard? I’m a brown mustard kind myself.
[off topic]
#24, Mr. Fusion, exactly right! What would real homemade mayo be without some spicy mustard?
There use to be a lot of bees here in San Diego county, including the lovely bumblebee. Now you be lucky to find a few. Many things play a part, much of it around my area has been housing development where canyons are destroyed and rivers made extincted.
Bee’s were so plentiful in the early 80’s that we, as kids, could go out to a park and get some nice raw honey. Yes, it can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing but that’s beside the point 🙂 As in the movie “Bee” less bees = less pollination = less plants 🙂
I actually have a friend in China who has a sister starting at a university studying Bees. Sadly, she is only using that subject to get into the university and hopefully will change later on.