have been plaguing people globally since first reported in 2006. as time passes, we ve seen the devastation that ccd can cause to bees and the beekeepers. but there s a less obvious fallout with the food we eat and more specifically our honey. our demand for honey is far greater than we can produce so we look to different countries to get our fix but means different food and safety regulations. who s to say what s even in our honey? so i m going to do a little experiment on supermarket honey. i m meeting an anthropologist agent. he s identifying if honey has pollen and if so, tracing it back to region of origin. what do you look for? where the honey comes from. the country of origin and then of course, the other thing we d like to know is what were the nectar sources that they used. you know, that s clover. it should have come from clover.
but there s a less obvious fallout with the food we eat and more specifically our honey. our demand for honey is far greater than we can produce so we look to different countries to get our fix but means different food and safety regulations. who s to say what s even in our honey? so i m going to do a little experiment on supermarket honey. i m meeting an anthropologist and pollen spegtist at texas a&m university. when you test honey, what are you looking for? where the honey comes from. the country of origin and then of course, the other thing we d like to know is what were the nectar sources that they used. you know, that s clover. it should have come from clover. this says manuca so it should have come from the manuca plant. how often when people buy honey are they being cheated?
so i m going to do a little experiment on supermarket honey. burrellson s honey. source certified. it s a product of the usaa argentina canada brazil and mexico. doesn t know where it s from. we re going to find out though. this is in like every house in america. if you re an american, odds are you ve got this in your cab bet. i ll take this too, get this tested. oh, see, yeah, this is the fancy honey rack. look at this. this one is u.s. fancy grade, 100% raw certified manuka honey from new zealand. $35. pixies and rainbows should shoot out. i should open that and win the lottery. this is, here s what it says this is. this is 100% texas honey
honey producer, china. in order to protect american beekeepers from price dumping, the u.s. imposed a high tariff, but china has found a work around by smuggling it through other countries. it turns out that pesticides and other contaminants including antibiotics banned in the united states for acute toxicity have been found in the chinese honey. good news, you can test where the honey comes from by testing pollen. bad news, large scale often remove pollen from the honey. they say it s to make it more palatable for u.s. consumers but also any trace of where the honey comes from. it s estimated of the over 40 million pounds of honey shipped to america, less than 5% is checked by the fda which makes me wonder, how well do we know where our food is coming from? so i m going to do a little experiment on supermarket honey.