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  • From: Richard Stewart <rstewart AT zoomtown.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] CNG and Apiaries
  • Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:45:01 -0400

This is a response to Alice Varon of CNG.  Someone form the list had forwarded this conversation to her and I felt, given the need for me to make a public correction to the members of this forum because of a fault on my part that I should simply include the entire email.

Alice

I appreciate the email you sent me.  Because of it I went back to reread what you have printed in  the Apiary Standards for CNG and indeed the you do permit the hives to be within 3 miles of a conventional farm.  You are correct.

I am publicly correcting my misinterpretation of the standards in the forum where we are discussing this.  I apologize to you and those that read my comments for being in error.

I would like to reiterate that as I had stated in the initial message that I think CNG is a fantastic alternative to product labeling for produce, nuts, grains, and fruit, all things that can be controlled, planned, and confirmed.  

Unfortunately I think the attempt to label honey anything other than local, raw, or any of the USDA grades (which is based on clarity and color) is walking down the wrong path.  You have a label for a movement that promotes both through its media and its members that CNG is an alternative to "organic", yet you have a program that has enough loopholes in it as to place the label in question.  Sort of like saying you shouldn't use polluted river water as an irrigation source but if you have to, well that's OK.  The reason you are using a label is to communicate to consumers.  By making the claim "CNG is the next best alternative to organic" you are telling consumers that the honey is organic in everything but name and places the burden of understanding on the consumer that in fact that is NOT what it means.  Lastly, because there is no official USDA organic program for honey or beekeeping produced in the US by US beekeepers CNG Honey is indeed not an alternative to organic and thus even more misleading.

Unfortunately consumers have to trust outside 3rd party inspectors to verify that in fact the honey they are getting from overseas is indeed organic.  Some may very well be, but given the lack of transparency in the honey packing industry I would hold just about everything suspect.

I think that in the end it would be more honest if we simply stopped misleading the public and end the use of CNG labeling for honey.  No one can control what bees forage on no more than we can control neighbors that grow GMO and spray.  I would think this would be far more positive and honest with consumers who, as we all know take the label, usually at face value without researching in detail what it actually means...and the CNG label TRULY means something completely different with honey than with food produced following organic standards.

Again, I apologize for the incorrect statement that I made regarding bees and forage requirements regarding CNG Standards and Apiaries.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106



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