Status: Died, Failed
Honeybees: Revises powers & duties of DOACS for purposes of
Florida Honey Certification & Honeybee Law; specifies that DOACS
has exclusive authority over regulations, inquiries & complaints
relating to beekeeping, apiaries, & apiary locations. Beekeepers Association of Southwest Florida is supporting HB1339 ~ See our Endorsement Resolution UPDATE: Died in Agriculture & Natural Resources Policy Committee on Friday, April 30, 2010 6:59 PM
West Virginia just became the first state in the nation to pass a Beekeeper's Immunity Law which limits the liability of apiary owners and operators. West Virginia's HB4527 Per Dan O'Hanlon (Legislative Chair of West Virginia Beekeepers Association): "It passed our House 94-2 and our Senate 34-0. The final version of the bill is attached. Many thanks to the bill's sponsors and the many others in both chambers who helped out. The bill was made effective on passage. I will be explaining it at the WV Beekeeper's Spring Meeting in Huntington April 10th. HOORAY!!!! "
BRING ON THE BEES
New York Times announced March 16,
2010: "New York City's board of health voted Tuesday to lift a
ban against beekeeping, legalizing the hives of hundreds of
residents who have tended bees in defiance of the law.
FSBA Board of Managers Meeting, March 2, 2010
Ron Weisburg moved that the Florida State Beekeepers Association go
on record supporting both bills (SB1900 & S2376) and that a letter
be written on FSBA stationary stating this and then distributed to
legislators and others. Seconded by Calvin Wilcox. Discussion
revolved around whether the Florida Farm Bureau would support SB
1900 as is may contain a provision for raw milk, which the Farm
Bureau will vigorously oppose. Dennis Riggs and another
attendee both stated that SB1900 did not contain the word milk.
Motion passed.
[ View Minutes & Report from this FSBA B.O.M. Meeting ]
Florida Food Freedom Act Senate Bill: S 1900 Status: Died, Failed With a strong demand in Florida for local produce, Senator Carey Baker is trying to help producers meet the growing market’s need, by alleviating excessive state food permits. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2010. 02/24/10 SENATE Filed 04/30/10 SENATE Died in Committee on Agriculture
How expensive is it for a small-scale beekeeper and sideliners to get and maintain a food license to bottle their own honey? The following three documents might shed some light on a portion of the financial burden for which we are seeking relief in the form of exemptions.
You can find these documents and many more relating to Food Inspections, Food Permit References, Food Permit Fees, etc. at the Division of Food Safety website. Our association supports any efforts to assist small beekeeping operations in the state of Florida. We are aware of the very high costs involved with legally selling honey products and recognize these costs to be a unfair burden to certain small operations of beekeepers (small-scale and sideliners). We seek solutions which would allow small beekeeping operations to be able to afford to operate without the unreasonable costs to be legal. We feel this would increase interest in beginning beekeeping and make beekeeping more attractive to beginners, small-scale and sideline beekeepers.. Alleviation of most of financial burdens would equate to more small beekeeping operations growing and developing into larger operations more financially able to comply with the permitting and other requirements which were too much of a burden when they were a smaller operation. This is not a new idea. Other states have already realized this and have taken steps to help by proposing exemptions for small honey producers. For example in a recent (February 13, 2009) note to members of the Mississippi Beekeepers, Harry Fulton, gave an update on their proposal regarding 500 gallon honey exemption in Mississippi which has already passed through one house and is on the way to other with little opposition. Read this letter (letter highlight/emphasis placed on the exemption thru legislation). Read their actual House Bill 486 in pdf format... which is now LAW (effective July 1, 2009).
Read all about it (History of this Bill in the Mississippi Legislature... the votes, etc.) Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin have food license exemptions for bottling honey for retail sale without reference to the number of hives, gallons, or pounds of honey. Their exemptions include all part time beekeepers, both hobbyist (1 to 24 hives) and all sideliners (25 to 300 hives). They use key words like, raw honey (not heated to 160 degrees – not cooked), wholesale to license processors and retail sell direct to end users, road side stands, farmers markets, front yards, flea markets, only required if off-premises, etc. Ohio exempts the sale of honey at farmers markets, ILLINOIS is trying to accomplish relief from this financial burden: February 4, 2010, Springfield, IL – The Illinois State Beekeepers Association (ISBA) today announced its support for Senator Dave Luechtefeld's (R-Okawville) introduction of SB 2959 to recognize raw, unadulterated honey as an agricultural commodity. Further, SB 2959 will amend the Sanitary Food Preparation Act to ease regulation on small-scale beekeepers who wish to sell their honey direct to consumers. Measure would loosen regulation on small-scale beekeepers. On February 23, 2010: Mike Sabo (Chairman, Legislative Committee, Illinois State Beekeepers Association), his 2 youngest daughters, and several ISBA members were sitting in the Agricultural Committee hoping to have SB 2959 move out of Committee. This is what he prepared to say: READ Mike's Presentation Mike Sabo's wife has e-mailed us of another hurdle they are facing with the Illinois Health Department. A Sticky Situation , bill would stop regulation of hobbyist honey producers. She also has written an article for Local Harvest and which will also appear in her local newspaper. Read Her Story which is another avenue which Florida may wish to explore... writing article or story for publications and/or local newspaper.
"It is indeed sad that the State of Florida was the first to pass a Honey Standard and at the same time lags behind other states like Mississippi and Illinois who are offering regulatory relief in support of their small beekeepers. Both ABA and other small beekeepers recognize that all beekeepers benefit when the consuming public can be assured that their honey is a safe and wholesome product." Charles Robert Futch, President, Apalachee Beekeepers Association READ Charles Futch's' letter to ABJ Dadant pointing out the incorrect title of a "letter to the editor" which falsely indicates that there are those seeking exemption from the Honey Standard... which couldn't be further from the truth, since those seeking Financial Burden Relief for small-scale beekeepers also whole-heartedly support the Honey Standard. The Apalachee Beekeepers Association has made much effort with their RESOLUTION and we hope that all the other local associations in the state will support their efforts already underway so that Florida can do similar to Mississippi (and other states). Per Bob Livingston, "Apalachee presented our resolution to the FSBA Board of Managers (BOM) at the 2008 mid-year meeting. The resolution called for an exemption from regulation for beekeepers producing less than 1000 gallons of honey. The resolution was tabled "until an appointed committee could present a study and recommendation to the BOM at the fall meeting" I was a member of that committee. The committee presented its report and recommendations to the FSBA board prior to the fall meeting and "delivery of the report was declined because of the pending honey standard". In February 2009,the BOM voted to endorse the committee report and its recommendations. The recommendations were to change the statutory definition of "Raw Agricultural Commodities" to include honey; provide a statutory exemption for honey like the ones already given to legumes and cane or sorghum syrup and lastly a Best Management Practice (BMP) that would allow honey to be bottled in a home kitchen, a bathroom in an adjacent home or building to be used for the honey house etc."
The RESOLUTION subsequently was discussed and included in the
Report of Committee Appointed to Study Changes in Food
Regulation for Small Beekeepers, October 21, 2008.
The Committee proposed two possible ways to achieve regulatory change should
the above resolution go forward: 1) Two statutory changes contain no limits on
production or sales. One exempts anyone producing and bottling their own honey
from the food regulations. The other classifies honey as a "raw agricultural
commodity" and thus exempts honey from the food regulations. 2) The Best
Management Practices (BMP) proposal defines a "Small Beekeepers/Honey
Producer" as a registered Florida Beekeeper producing and retailing honey from
Florida and having less than $15,000/year in gross retail honey sales. This is
similar to the $15,000 sales limit for a "Limited Sales" Food Permit except
that it specifies retail sales vs. total sales. For the full version, see Tony's letter of further explanation. For the results read the MINUTES from the Board of Managers PHONE CONFERENCE (February 25, 2009) Meeting which included discussion and acceptance of the above Apalachee Beekeepers RESOLUTION.
Beekeepers Association of Southwest Florida can use
your help. Please DONATE to support our group's efforts. Notice: You do NOT have to be a member of PayPal (or sign up) to use your credit card to donate, simply look during the donation process for the section "Don't have a PayPal account? and click continue.
How do I join Beekeepers Association of Southwest Florida (BASF)? Attend one of our meetings and pay applicable dues to our Treasurer, or you can DOWNLOAD an application for membership, and mail it to our treasurer along with applicable dues. Currently $10 for current year if you are already a member of the Florida State Beekeepers Association (FSBA). If you are not a member of FSBA then we can collect membership dues for FSBA as well, in which case the total amount would be $25 ($10 BASF + $15 FSBA).
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