CATCH THE BUZZ
Organic honey rules set to change...comment period almost expired. Are bees livestock?
Marc Hoffman just brought this to our attnetion, and thier is little time to react, but the information is here and he points to several resources available. If you are concerned about dealing with organic honey production this is going to affect you in some way, and knowing what to expect is half the battle. Follow Marc's articles and instructions on finding out more. In the mean time we'll see what we can find out here, but time is short and there's lots to do. Thanks Marc, for catching this for us...
From Marc...
I just found out yesterday about a rulemaking at USDA that was published in the Federal Register on Oct 23. The comment period expires on Dec. 23. Among other matters, the rulemaking redefines livestock for the purposes of the National Organic Program (NOP) under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA) to include bees, which had explicitly been excluded from the definition under previous regulations.
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Here's an article about this:
Here is the notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5073426
for more info search google for: bees livestock usda rules