A 'Food Systems Thinking' Roadmap for Policymakers and Retailers to Save the Ecosystem by Saving the Endangered Honey Producer from the Devastating Consequences of Honey Fraud

Abstract

This White Paper recognizes how complicated the food supply chain is and how difficult it can be for stakeholders to see the big picture. This challenge is particularly true when it comes to the problem of the endangered US honey producer via honey fraud in the United States.

This White Paper invites both policymakers and retailers to engage in food-systems thinking and recognize two critical points. The first point is the symbiotic relationships and interdependence between the domestic production of authentic honey, the critical ecosystem role of honeybees as pollinators in the United States, and the livelihoods of the managers of these honeybee pollinators – the honey producers. The second point is the destructive force of honey fraud in undermining these symbiotic activities and the resultant threat to the ecosystem.

To address these two points, this White Paper makes a number of food-systems recommendations to policymakers and retailers – two stakeholder groups who can really make a difference – in order to save the endangered honey producer from fraud and in turn benefit the ecosystem.

This White Paper follows on the heels of the Resnick Center’s previous publication on food fraud: The Pursuit of Food Authenticity: Recommended Legal and Policy Strategies to Eradicate Economically Motivated Adulteration (Food Fraud) (2016). The Resnick Center is also pleased to partner recently with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on a series of research and advisory initiatives, the first one of which is addressing food fraud on a global scale.

Keywords: food fraud, honeybees, honey producers, pollination, honey fraud, food systems, FDA, USDA, symbiosis