{"id":745,"date":"2011-01-07T14:33:33","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T14:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/chinas-honey-scam-and-economic-logic-at-its-worst.html"},"modified":"2011-01-07T14:33:33","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T14:33:33","slug":"chinas-honey-scam-and-economic-logic-at-its-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/chinas-honey-scam-and-economic-logic-at-its-worst.html","title":{"rendered":"China’s honey scam and economic logic at its worst"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Bees are under considerable threat
\nthese days, and we are not sure whether it is due to one or two pathogen<\/a>s  <\/span>or maybe to a complex series of
\ninterrelationships. Two recent discussions of possibly very complex relations are in
\nWired<\/a> and  at Treehugger<\/a>.  But that is ultimately a scientific questuon I have no expertise
\non.  <\/span><\/p>\n

However, today I read of another
\nthreat to America’s bees and agriculture, this time coming from China<\/a>.  <\/span>Here I can offer some insights of
\nvalue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

China uses practices in its honey
\nproduction that are banned in this country, from antibiotics in their bees that
\nbleed into their honey to adulterants. 
\n<\/span>In addition, America slapped high tariffs in Chinese honey.  <\/span>Consequently China is using go-betweens
\nthat seem to indicate the honey comes from other countries to get around
\nAmerica’s blocs.<\/p>\n

It’s all about profits of course. <\/p>\n

At one level the story is about
\ncriminal companies selling fraudulent products to other companies that market
\nit to consumers.  <\/span>These other
\ncompanies may or may not also be criminals.  <\/span>But this is not the most interesting issue, far from
\nit.  <\/span>China is famous for producing
\nadulterated and poor quality products.<\/p>\n

The real issue is ecological.<\/b><\/p>\n

As the economics of domestic honey
\nproduction fail in the United States due to cheap honey from China, the
\nbeleaguered bee and honey industry shrinks.  <\/span>As a result of the “Miracle of the Market” we are told
\nproduction must shift to the most “efficient” producer. The logic that applies to producing socks also applies to producing honey.<\/p>\n

But without bees American
\nagriculture will be unable to raise nearly as much as it currently does. Plants
\nneed pollination and there are currently not enough wold bees to do the job and in many places the local ecologies are so disrupted there are unlikely to be.<\/p>\n

Ah! More “Miracle of the Market” we
\nwill be told.  <\/span>The crops will be
\nraised in other areas where they are profitable, wherever that might be.<\/p>\n

An Arbitrary Assumption<\/b><\/p>\n

The logic of the market economy
\ndoing good things assumes that all essential costs can be internalized.  <\/span>To the degree they are not <\/i>internalized, the innocent will suffer as aggressors
\nprofit.  <\/span>Economists tend to
\nemphasize the first sentence and ignore the second. This is especially
\nadvocates of free markets – libertarians and such, and explains their visceral
\nhostility to so much environmental science.  <\/span>Once costs are internalized, under fair conditions
\neverything will work out for the benefit of  <\/span>all, but let’s not look very hard at our assumption that
\ncosts are internalized.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is hackery masquerading as
\nsocial science.  <\/span>Here is what is
\nreally going on.<\/p>\n

Systemic Disconnects<\/b><\/p>\n

Economies exist in larger and more
\ninclusive contexts on which they depend. In the human world economies depend on
\nlaws defining property rights and rules of contract. How these rules and
\ndefinitions are decided will have an enormous impact on what is produced, what
\nis traded, and where things are made. This is why the rich and corporate
\nsociopaths spend so much time and energy making sure the rules are written not
\nto internalize costs but rather to impose as many of their own costs on others
\nas they can get away with.  <\/span>Think
\nof our banksters as the most visible example. Once they’ve loaded the deck in
\ntheir favor they hire think tanks to praise “the market.”<\/p>\n

But this human world itself exists
\nwithin a still larger context, that of nature.  <\/span>Nature provides the context within which we make our living
\nand live our lives.  <\/span>Often the
\nlogic of the human world needs to be shaped to harmonize with the more
\nall-embracing logic of the natural world. 
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Lets assume that Chinese honey is actually as good as American honey.  <\/span>Does this change anything?  <\/span>Actually no.  <\/span>Because the main problem is not that cheap Chinese honey is destroying American honey producers.  <\/span>The real problem is that so much in this country ecologically  <\/span>depends on bees, and our environment has been so twisted by industry that minus the bee industry there will not be enough bees to pollinate American agriculture at its current levels.  <\/span>The natural context outweighs the market but our system of laws and property rights ignores this inconvenient (for corporations) fact.<\/p>\n

Harmony will not come about on its
\nown in any way that humans like because the human world changes with the speed of thought whereas the
\nnatural world adapts with the speed of reproduction.  <\/span>The human world works much faster than most natural
\nprocesses, but depends on the health of those processes to flourish.  <\/span>This is the fundamental tension between
\nhuman beings and nature, and may ultimately destroy us. Prudence and ethics war with pure market logic.<\/p>\n

Maintaining bees is one example of
\nthis problem among a great many.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Corporations, criminal governments,
\nand sociopaths do not care about the damage they do to the larger contexts
\nwithin which they live.  <\/span>Destroy
\nthe land and pervert the laws? 
\n<\/span>That’s OK so long as their bottom line and power is enhanced.  <\/span>By putting profit ahead of protective
\nlaws and the even more important context of preserving strong natural processes
\nthat enrich all of life, these companies and people are the enemies of all
\nhumanity.  <\/span><\/p>\n

This is why I emphasize over and
\nover again, ALWAYS buy locally produced food when reasonably possible and support producers and sellers as disconnected
\nfrom corporate sociopathy as possible. 
\n<\/span>The point is not to bring these monsters down, we are far from that, but
\nto reward and encourage those people who do it right. They provide services to us all that are not reflected in the money price of their goods, just as corporate agriculture injures us in equally unpriced ways.  This is why Whole Foods
\nis not a long run solution to the problem of sustainable agriculture and a
\nhealthy world.<\/p>\n

If the American honey industry
\ncollapses and our agriculture suffers, how many consumers will feel good that
\nthey helped bring this about but saved a few cents on their honey?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bees are under considerable threat these days, and we are not sure whether it is due to one or two pathogens  or maybe to a complex series of interrelationships. Two recent discussions of possibly very complex relations are in Wired and  at Treehugger.  But that is ultimately a scientific questuon I have no expertise on. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,109,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-environment","category-social-and-political-theory"],"yoast_head":"\nChina's honey scam and economic logic at its worst - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/chinas-honey-scam-and-economic-logic-at-its-worst.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China's honey scam and economic logic at its worst - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bees are under considerable threat these days, and we are not sure whether it is due to one or two pathogens  or maybe to a complex series of interrelationships. 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