Skimmed through
The State of the Bees Report, which makes an alarmist case against US commercial beekeeping and urges the industry to adopt a recipe for less intensive management, to increase habitat diversity, reduce reliance on animal products and so on.
So far, so reasonable, and similar arguments will apply in future to all global food production in the light of population increase, land scarcity, cost of production, global warming and carbon use.
For example, the idea of non-apis pollination is covered and asked the question: would commercial beekeepers survive on honey producton alone? In the US, the big players make their money from pollination, not honey.
Understandably, this picture of gloom and exploitation promotes the case for MeliBio and they did raise $1.5m with good press, but I can't pin down the claim to be
real honey. Nearest was from Time magazine (which included MeliBio in the Special Mention list of 100 Best Inventions of 2021) that described it as:
1
a lab-brewed molecular copy of honey, which has identical sweetness and viscosity to the real thing
2 harnessing microbiology and plant-based food science, MeliBio creates clean sustainable honey, with matching nutrient composition and richness as conventional honey.
The US Food and Drug Adminisration (FDA)
defines honey pretty clearly and MeliBio falls outside the law in that regard. As MeliBio say,
it may sound crazy but we make real honey wthout bees!
No, they don't, but their case for the product is sound.
