BOARD OF MANAGERS MEETING
Meeting called to order 12:45
p.m. by President Laurence Cutts
Associations represented by
their voting members were:
Applachee Beekeepers Association
Orange
Ridge Beekeepers Association
One member from
Dr. Malcolm Sanford was
absent for personal matters.
Nancy Gentry brought us up to
speed on the Identity for Honey Standard. It is based on the CODEX which is an
international standard for honey. She said that we are not trying to make the
Standard a law, but rather a ruling. A law will mean the courts would have to
be involved. A ruling would allow the beekeepers themselves to police their
industry and we have more beekeepers than the state has in bodies for
enforcement. So far, there are several states following
Florida's standard is, in essence, the same standard that
was rejected by FDA in March, 2006, and that once the standard is adopted( "ratified" would be an incorrect term
since again, the standard is not a law but a rule...), Florida will be the
first state to have a compositional standard; in other words, we are defining
what is in the bottle regardless of the wording on the label. Citizens will be
assured that when they are purchasing honey in the stores, it's
honey in the bottle. If the bottle contains something other than honey, say a
percentage of corn syrup, then the contents are not
honey and cannot be sold as such. If the
bottler still wants to sell the adulterated product, they must relabel it as SYRUP containing honey.
Tony Hogg read the resolution
to see if we can get some type of relief from the State Food Safety Division
concerning the dollar amount that we as part time beekeepers have to pay in
order to bottle and sale our honey, even to the possibility of being exempt for
producers of 10,000 gallons of honey.
Motion was made and seconded
to table this discussion until an appointed committee could present a study and
recommendation to the board at the fall meeting, That meeting will be held October
30,31, and November 1, 2008 in
Meeting adjourned for lunch
and was reconvened 5:30 p.m.
Nancy Gentry brought up the
discussion of getting a written ruling on just what “affiliation of locals”
means. This led to a discussion of how
we are to deter main who and possibly how many votes an
association can have at the Board meetings. One possibility would be one vote for each 20
members that is signed up with the state association. However, if an association has only 5-10
members signed with the state, then they would not have a vote. It was thought that the by laws say that if an
association wants to have a vote, then if no one is registered with the State
Association, then the local association has to pay the equivalent of 20 paid
members. A close reading the bylaws and constitution found at http://floridabeekeepers.org does not
verify this. Again, this discussion was
tabled until the Fall meeting.
There was a feasibility study
on the honey co-op we had discussed in the past and at that time it was decided
it would not help us as small producers. At that time there was no Standard of Honey,
nor was there a Definition of Honey. There
has been $2,000 donated to the State Association to help get the co-op started.
Since it was decided to not pursue it at that time, the treasurer wanted to
know what to do with the money. It has
been in a special account for all this time. It was decided to contact the
donors and ask what they wanted to do with the money of if they wanted it back.
We will have a report at the Fall meeting.
Discussion concerning the
placement of hives on the water district lands. Each district has it's
own set of rules. One must go to the individual district to find out what their
rules are.
There area concerns about
areal spraying for insects in the
Motion was made and seconded
to adjourn. Motion carried. Adjourned as 6:15 pm
Developed from notes from those in attendance and respectfully
submitted,
Thanks to Ernest “Peaches” Peach for recording the minutes.
Malcolm
T. Sanford
Executive Secretary
.