I had a question from The Food Guys Show on KUFM, Montana Public Radio, 89.1FM, Missoula, Montana. Co-Host Jon wrote me:
"Mark: A listener to our Food Guys show on KUFM writes us that her usual honey supplier has quit, saying that she couldn't keep her hives from contamination from bees feeding on GMO rape in the Flathead Valley (grown for the canola market) and the honey in the hives was crystallizing. I wonder if you have any knowledge about that?"
My first thoughts were to address the idea of "contamination". But, then after reading the e-mail again and rewriting it here on beesource it seemed to me that Jon's listener was asking about the crystallization of the honey in the comb making it so her supplier could not provide her honey anymore.
It is my understanding that Canola (rape seed) Honey will crystallize in the comb if the beekeeper does not get the supers off and extracted soon after the bees finish capping the combs. That is correct, isn't it? You guys who produce canola honey?
What I am also wondering is what would there be in the nectar of a GMO plant which itself would be modified? Would a sample of nectar from a nonGMO plant and a sample of nectar from a GMO plant be different in any way? And therefore the Honey?