Honey Laundering

     It's been about 3 months now that I've been drinking tea instead of my usual stiff black coffee in the morning and while it's not an every day occurrence, I think I've had more honey in these three months than in my entire life. Not too bad with a twist of lemon. Seems natural, and a part of the whole-foods way of living. Imagine my surprise when I found this article about HONEY LAUNDERING on the Mother Nature Network (MNN). WHO FAKES HONEY? Corn syrup mixture? "Jaggery?" WTF is that? The food safety inspectors are even saying it contains (cue horror movie music) illegal antibiotics and metal contaminants. Where did this idea come from? I seriously want to know. Who had that notion that "hey, we could make big bucks duping those silly Americans by messing with their bee pollen byproduct. Their Starbucks will never taste the same! Muahahah!"

     Sorry. Carried away there. Really though, this seems like a ridiculous plot from a bad movie, where the drug bust went bad and now the complacent corporations are getting sued for negligence. Not surprisingly, the NPR take on the US-side of the scandal says certain American honey vendors are now being prosecuted under criminal charges. Read more in the Wired article on the whiz-bang-wow astrolomy equipment being used to detect the fake honey.

     It's bad enough the bees are endangered, but now this? The industry can't seem to catch a break. Nothing like a little market dumping and price manipulation to sour the sweetener. Which makes me wonder...if the money/price issue wasn't really of concern, would we have even caught this counterfeit activity at all? Awesome. One more thing to worry about when you see the "Made in China" label. Or will it be "Made in China Thailand?"

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