Honey is not an item one thinks about very often unless you are fermenting a tasty mead or like to use the natural sweetener (gag) on your morning toast. But there are lessons to be learned from honey: the effects of tariffs and as a parallel to the drug war.
Americans apparently love their bee squeezings, consuming a yearly average of 1.3 pounds per person for nearly 400 million pounds in total. Since demand is so high, U.S beekeepers can only supply forty-eight percent of this amount, with forty-one other countries making up the rest. But honey, like so many other market products, is controlled (to some degree as we are about to find out), and foreign imports are, in theory, kept in check by tariffs. Chinese honey, in particular, has been targeted since the year 2001 with a stiff tariff, tripling the import duty to $2.63 per net kilogram. This was enacted because American producers complained that the Chinese were undercutting “fair market” prices (whatever those are!), making it difficult for domestic beekeepers to compete.
Since the tariff on Chinese honey, to no one’s surprise, the imports from other countries suddenly spiked, as Chinese producers found other means to move their product. Honey Laundering, as it is called, happens by shipping the product from China to a neutral port, changing the country of origin, and then sending the barrels onward to the United States. Recent estimates say that a third of the honey consumed here comes from such illegal sources. And because of filtration methods, the pollen – used to determine the country of origin – can be scrubbed clean, creating an untraceable product. Some Chinese producers also create fake honey – make from artificial sweeteners and mixed with other liquids to look like the real thing.
China, as to be expected, views the tariff as a protectionist measure. The domestic producers counter that Asian honey has antibiotics and the presence of lead; also the tariff not only protects American beekeepers but is an important health issue. For example, in India, honey tested for export in 2010 found lead and antibiotics in twenty-three percent of the samples. These samples were assumed to have come from Chinese sources, relabeled as Indian production.
Over the past few years, there have been indictments and arrests for honey laundering, spanning several countries. There are federal agencies at work here, too: the Department of Justice, ICE, and the FDA, busy busting illegal importers but only making a minor dent in the flow of illegal honey. Honey laundering continues, and will continue as long as there are incentives to do so.
Sources: various articles found online (take that!).
Comments
132 responses to “A Taste of Honey”
Clearly the need to import so much is a result of the beepocalypse!
so what yer saying is that Cheerios bee’s a fucking slant mole.
He’s the Manchurian Mascot.
There’s something not quite right about eating the equivalent of bee jizz.
It’s closer to externally stored fat.
And lord knows, we’re all sane here.
And I’d rather play here
With all the madmen
For I’m quite content they’re all as sane as me
Hey, speak for myself!
O thought ot was vomit
God damn stupid phone keyboard arghh
As a poor eastern european i have to warn you any comment on my typos is microagression and it will be reported to the local bias response team
This is Pie’s keyboard, he’s very proud of getting the latest model in his village, all he had to do was trade several sheep and his third cousin to the wandering gypsy troupe.
*narrows gaze, steals horse, picks up violin*
That’s awful! he’s stuck with the oversized enter key…
That’s what she said!
Also, ‘gypsy ’ is not the preferred nomenclature.
He could have saved the sheep and just made this instead
It’s more like group vomit than anything else.
Work yourself to death collecting it, chew it up, and spit it out for the sake of raising someone else’s children. It brings community together. It’s the social contract!
Someone else’s children? Those are your sisters! Nevermind the fact that you’ve got ten thousand sisters…
“It takes a hive”
Honey laundering, is that a euphemism for sex trafficking?
Free the exploited Apis mellifera!
Thanks for this information. I’ve been known to make homemade wine from time to time, and I’ve always wanted to use honey instead of sugar, but it’s just too damn expensive.
How much honey do you need?
Mead is 8-10lb honey to 5 gallon of water. Honeyed wines, probably less.
Not cheap unless you have a trained bear going out harvesting it for you.
trained bear going out harvesting it for you.
Hmm, gives me a business idea.
A Kodiak moment?
Hold this mint julep for me and watch this..
*sweet sound of bearing mauling*
OK, I laughed.
rawr?
How much honey do you need?
Its been more than several years since I made mead (a sparkling cranberry mead for the holidays – it was awesome). I don’t recall using more than one pound of honey per gallon, but I could easily be off. The recipes I see call for twice that (or more), so maybe it was 10. It was made with champagne yeast, which gives a drier mead, and was wonderfully dry/tart/not too sweet. Possibly a lower dose of honey made for a drier mead.
Memory returns! It was one gallon of honey for five gallons of mead!
[Ponders making a batch]
Mead always makes me want to go Viking.
We always go viking in my house.
*Invites switzy over for drinks*
In fact, I’ve got something like 10 bottles of mead from a local(ish) winery just sitting around in the basement right now.
So….got any neighbors you want pillaged?
I axed my attorney, and he said “no”.
Mead is the only drink I’ve ever had an utterly suicidal hangover from, and I’ve drunk a bewildering variety of strange shit over the years.
There’s another honey-related boozy drink that’s got a name starting with ‘m’ that was even worse. I’m not sure I want to remember the name.
Melomel?
No, iirc it was something ending like ‘M-something-glis’. Perfect name for someone who was into ren faires. I think it was herbs and lemons in it.
Metheglin. The other flavored mead.
Meth-something? /Florida Man perks up…
*shrugs*
He’s not wrong…
I’ll take 2 bottles, please.
I think it was a couple pounds per gallon of wine.
You could do braggot, which is like honey beer except with lots more honey (and ABV).
My granpappy made honey. It was yello. And sweet. Also it did not come in jars but was hiding in some sort of strange waxy substance, but if you chewed it enough honey came out of it. Also mint honey was rare as he cound not manage making it every year. Well he didnt make it the bees did. Anyway thats all I got.
Friend of mine in France’s father ran a small honey ranch(?).
The bees primarily visited lavender and clover. Some of the nicest, most fragrant honeys I ever ate, when fresh.
The French government, of course, dictate that when you sell the honey on, it must be pasteurized. So, all the fun fragrance … pffui. Gone.
Why the fuck would you need to pasteurize honey? Three-thousand-year-old honey has been found in ancient jars that is still edible because bacteria can’t grow in pure honey.
Because … France. Although I suspect it’s more “Because EU”.
Because … France. Although I suspect it’s more “Because EU”.
It’s racist to suggest that.
Because the French love rules for the sake of rules. I watched a documentary on Champagne last night. Everything and I mean everything about growing grapes in the champagne region and producing wine is regulated.
There’s also the issue of homogeneity and blending, which a large processing plant would want in the primary ingredients, just like you want to control the flavors that go into a blended whiskey to ensure consistency there.
The problem was that was the only way he could sell the honey outside of the immediate area. There was no permissible mechanism for him to supply ’boutique’ sellers.
Irradiate it. Europeans aren’t shy about that, I hear.
I’d assume it’s the potential for botulism spores, which can survive the desiccating effect of honey. It’s the reason you’re not supposed to give honey to infants.
oops
Pasteurization will not destroy Clostridium Botulinum spores. All it does to honey is destroy many of the nuanced flavors and aromas, as well as many of the phytochemicals, antioxidants, and nutrients. In other words pasteurization degrades the product yet provides no clear benefit. To destroy the spores you would need to pressure cook at 250 F for several minutes, or boil at normal pressure for a very long time. So….France.
In Romania most often is pure pseudoaccacia pure linded or something called polyflower which is like one third sunflower and two thirds whatever else.
I liked the accacia mostly. There is also a rare one that.comes not from flowers but the secretion from aphids that pibe on fir trees and pine trees
Honey ranches are called apiaries. Or ruchers, for your French friend.
I knew apiary, I just couldn’t remember the right word to be authentiquement français.
And you provided my answer. Gracias.
Croeso.
*Advances fyrd over Offa’s Dyke, ravages Rhayader and threatens Caernarvon.*
Back to your side of the marches, Saeson! Can’t we just agree to take it out on the Irish like old times?
Пчеловодство for the win!
You just put an Archies earworm in my brain. Thanks a fucking lot.
Bastard!
Me too. I think that was his plan
My first thought was this.
And then I thought of this.
Congressman angrily tells “constituents” (in scare quotes because I don’t believe most of these protestors and agitators at town halls are locals at all) that they don’t pay his salary – he’s paid enough in taxes to cover it.
What’s funny to me is that the media continues to pretend that the whole angry town hall event thing is completely organic. It’s totally like that Tea Party thing. So even when you show that Soros money is making it to the various organizers of protests, they deny it. They then try to pretend that its just like when the Koch brothers were accused of funding the Tea Party…while ignoring that they themselves were just fine with those accusations and hardly saw it worthwhile to fact check them.
So you get Politico blaring out a headline claiming “No evidence town hall protesters are being paid” while detailing how the organizations in question organizing them are receiving funds from Soros.
“Chaffetz’s rhetoric also referred to organized activist groups. The list of nonprofits supporting grass-roots, anti-Trump protests this winter also includes MoveOn.org and the Working Families Party — both of which have received Soros grants — and Organizing for Action, which employs 14 paid field organizers as part of its recently launched campaign to defend Obamacare.”
I don’t see the fact check of how much he has paid in taxes, just how much he has collected. I wonder why.
Honey is indeed a sweet sticky thing
Now you’ve gotten so wrapped up in the sugar business, you’ve forgotten the taste of real honey!
NEVER FORGET
Ain’t Givin’ Up No Ground from that album has a fantastic Rhodes piano solo, one of the coolest sounding instruments ever devised
seconded
its probably my single favorite polyphonic instrument. It also doesn’t really lose any of its magic even when piled through effects. You can pile on vibrato or phasor or delay or chorus and it never really overwhelms the instrument, it just adds different character
the wurli is a great poor-man’s rhodes, but doesn’t have quite the same range of sounds. It has that Ray Charles bite/honk when its hit hard, and its vibe sound is pretty distinct, but other than that its not as lush/smooth/’bell-like’ tone as the Rhodes mk1 – IV
Middle man is gonna middle.
The Japanese will take care of that Chinese honey market for you, no problem.
Won’t visit.
Bee bukkake ain’t my bag, man.
Beekkake?
They’re just harvesting plant sperm… you know, treekkake.
*narrows gazekakke*
Japanese hornets are the scariest fucking insects on planet earth. I am genuinely surprised I don’t see them in more anime. My suspicious is that they are so terrifying the Japanese refuse to acknowledge their existence, much like Freddy Krueger.
Jesus. Just Googled that. Now I know what my next nightmare will be.
OT: As a huge Brandon Sanderson fanboi, I would like to direct your attention to the latest Humble Book Bundle
That is all.
Read the first Elantris and the first Mistborn and wasn’t impressed enough to continue. For some reason, and this may be my own biased thinking, he seems a bit to prolific to be actually good.
I am a huge fan of the Wheel of Time series, which Sanderson finished when Robert Jordan died. Since then I have enjoyed the first mistborn trilogy and his Stormlight Archive series. Perhaps I am a sucker for overly prolific fiction, idk.
Sanderson is super hit or miss. Way of Kings was amazing but the follow up I struggled to push through. Mistborn #1 was pretty good but the sequel was not.
Mead doesn’t give me a migraine like wine or liquor, so honey is the bee’s knees.
regardless of quantity? Or is mead something you cant drink to much of? Never had the stuff, sounds sweet to me and I don’t like sweet drinks.
No, you can ferment it to a ‘dry’, and quite high alcohol content. Still has a honey-ish flavor, The really dry ones have flowery tones if you use the natural honey.
I’ve made a couple batches of acer (w/ maple syrup) that finished super dry, like around .98 gravity range.
No. Getting hammered will still give me a migraine.
I’ve had mead that was dry, smoky, sweet, spicy, etc… It really does come in a wide variety.
UVA Dean Nicole Eramo has settled her lawsuit against Rolling Stone.
Sealed I’m sure.
Natch
AI programs are demonstrating startling levels of racism and sexism. Because they recognize patterns in how actual people use language. Damn you, white men!
Shocking. Just shocking.
Computers are shitlords, it is known.
I thought Apple computers were supposed to be woke?
There is nothing more racist than being DOS based.
It’s all black and right.
I knew there was a reason I liked them
The AI algorithms have recognized reality! They must have picked up human biases!! Because it couldn’t be that certain sexes are more likely to be drawn to certain areas of study and occupations, or that there may be higher rates of crime among certain populations. No, biased language is the only possible answer.
I got nothing…
/dons glasses
…sweet to add that will stick in your minds.
Doesn’t work. Probably too much after the sunglasses.
You’re such a buzz-kill…
Because its to cold in Canada for bees and flowers and things to grow?
hive heard better…
Don’t worry, Rufus doesn’t drone on…
House GOP to file criminal charges against Lois Lerner.
ABOUT FRACKING TIME.
I’m thinking the headline is probably a misnomer. The House can’t file charges, merely recommend to Sessions that charges be brought. Right?
“The House can’t file charges, merely recommend to Sessions that charges be brought. Right?”
i think that’s right. i think the most common thing they’d recommend would be perjury; i don’t know to what degree they can compel an investigation that requires gathering additional evidence that wasn’t actually presented to them in any inquiry.
If she ordered government agents to target political enemies, I would hope that they could do better than perjury.
Well, that’s the thing = congressional investigations can only submit the evidence and testimony that they were able to pull together
if the evidence they have isn’t sufficient to charge on its own, and requires more investigation… AFAIK they can’t “demand” DoJ go find evidence. they can recommend charges based on evidence they collect, but they can’t recommend charges on evidence they don’t actually have.
its entirely DoJ’s prerogative whether to allocate resources to investigations, and they won’t simply jump on command simply because congress feels there’s ‘more out there’…. somewhere. If congress couldn’t get the evidence themselves, it raises the question why they couldn’t get it in the first place. No subpoena power? if congress really thinks there are charges worth making, they should be able to present the case to DoJ and show them how to make that case with available information.
Right. All they can really do is ask for the case to be reopened.
What about contempt of congress?
Guilty!
They already did that back in 2014.
Aren’t we all guilty of that?
And yet John Koskinen still has his job
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
well that must suck to be her and to have previously thought she could abuse the frightening power of the IRS and enjoy protection from the Executive branch in perpetuity.
I mean, all of her predecessors did, so why not?
Prison isnt as good as a hangin’ but it’ll have to do I guess.
Wife and I did taxes today and I was seeing Lerner’s arrogant smirk through red the whole time.
Allahpundit surprised to learn that Trump bullshit’s his way through everything. That’s a pretty weak BS detector.
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/04/13/trump-found-china-doesnt-much-power-north-korea-thought-talking-xi-jinping-10-minutes/
“Bullshit’s”?
Well seeing how I have to type every word, then go back and fix every word that my autocorrect fucks up which is most of them, I’m happy if it’s just not total gibberish. I’ll give you an example.
Allahpundit surprised to learn that Trump bullshit’s his way throng everybody. That is a pretty weak BS detector. Acrylic dusky do to bad.
The autocorrect added the apostrophe both times.
S’ure it did, JB.
Ima gonna comma there and smack ya!