🐝Honey: A buzzworthy subject

If the [rock painting]( near Valencia, Spain is as old as scientists think, humans have been obsessed with collecting honey for at least 8,000 years. It’s easy to see why: Honey is delicious, obviously, both on its own and as a flavoring in everything from candy and cereal to beer and vodka. It has [healing properties]( something our ancestors knew quite well. And honey also fuels a booming industry, with demand [easily outpacing]( supply. But not everything about it is so sweet. Trade regulations have caused honey importers and exporters to resort to shady tactics, resulting in product that’s less than pure. Although there are some regulations, each producer is allowed to [voluntarily grade]( their own product, with little oversight. So you can see why the international honey trade can seem, at times, like a hive of villainy. Let’s dip our finger into this sticky situation. 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Brought to you by [Quartz Obsession] Honey July 31, 2018 A sticky situation --------------------------------------------------------------- If the [rock painting]( near Valencia, Spain is as old as scientists think, humans have been obsessed with collecting honey for at least 8,000 years. It’s easy to see why: Honey is delicious, obviously, both on its own and as a flavoring in everything from candy and cereal to beer and vodka. It has [healing properties]( something our ancestors knew quite well. And honey also fuels a booming industry, with demand [easily outpacing]( supply. But not everything about it is so sweet. Trade regulations have caused honey importers and exporters to resort to shady tactics, resulting in product that’s less than pure. Although there are some regulations, each producer is allowed to [voluntarily grade]( their own product, with little oversight. So you can see why the international honey trade can seem, at times, like a hive of villainy. Let’s dip our finger into this sticky situation. 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [60-100:]( Pounds of honey produced by a beehive annually [2 million:]( Flowers that bees must collect nectar from to produce a single pound of honey [80%:]( Proportion of US crops that rely on honeybees for pollination [1.1 billion:]( Pounds of honey produced by China in 2016 [232 million:]( Pounds produced by Turkey in 2016 [150 million:]( Pounds of honey produced in the US annually [400 million:]( Pounds consumed by US consumers annually [87 million+:]( Views for the “Honey Badger” video on YouTube [15-20:]( Calls the NYPD’s beekeeper gets during peak bee season, from May to July [1:]( Chart position where Mariah Carey’s “Honey” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 charted[Screen Shot 2018-07-27 at 10.26.45 AM] Brought to you by The Information How Evan Spiegel fumbled Snap’s redesign. --------------------------------------------------------------- The Information’s reporters inquire deeply within Silicon Valley, uncovering exclusive and groundbreaking stories about today’s leading technology companies you won't find anywhere else. One previously unreported story dives deep into the influence of Chinese apps on Evan Spiegel’s decision to redesign Snapchat. The result: a 2% slowdown in user growth.[Read the story here.]( Honey-do List How bees make honey --------------------------------------------------------------- It takes an advanced supply chain to convert drips and drops of plant sugar into hundreds of pounds of honey. Here’s how it breaks down. 🐝 Forager bees gather nectar from plants into their “honey stomachs,” actually part of the esophagus. They can carry about [100 milligrams per flight]( to about two drops of water. 🐝 Those bees return to the hive and [regurgitate]( the nectar into processor bees, who chew it and regurgitate it into yet another bee, and so on, adding an enzyme that helps [break down]( the sucrose in the nectar into simpler glucose and fructose. 🐝 The last bees in the chain regurgitate the processed nectar into the honeycomb—[a structurally efficient shape]( built with wax from glands on the bees’ bellies. 🐝 Nectar is over [80% water]( honey is about 20% water. Chewing eliminates a lot of moisture, and the bees finish it off by drying it with their wings and putting a wax cap over it. Giphy Explainer Let’s talk about honey laundering --------------------------------------------------------------- It’s no secret that we’re experiencing a global honeybee problem. Pollinators are dying off at an alarming rate, concerning scientists, farmers, and environmentalists alike. Theories range from pesticides to [climate change]( but there’s one thing we know for sure—bee populations are decreasing, but the honey supply isn’t. In fact, US beekeepers reported losing [44%]( of their hives in 2016, but honey prices actually dropped slightly that year to 207.5 cents per pound, down from 208.3 cents per pound in 2015. How is that possible? Honey laundering. The name is a lot more charming than the reality: Honey laundering is the [practice]( of importing China-produced honey, which is often watered down with corn syrup or sugar water. Chinese honey is [banned]( in the US; producers get around it by having it shipped to another country, then relabeled and sent to the US as a product of the middleman. It’s illegal, of course, and the US government is cracking down: Two executives at a German food company were [arrested]( for the practice in 2008; 11 more were [indicted]( in the same investigation in 2010 under charges that included smuggling, conspiracy, and falsifying documents; and five people and two plants were charged in the [“Honey Sting”]( of 2013. In 2011, investigative reporter Andrew Schneider of Food Safety News [analyzed]( 60 bottles of honey from 10 states and Washington, DC. The result: 75% of the honey tested contained no pollen, likely the result of ultra-filtering, a process that removes any extra particles. The only reason to do this, he alleged, is to remove any trace of where the product originated—like in China. NPR [launched its own investigation]( and found that removing pollen can also speed up the crystallization process—and most consumers prefer honey that flows. Thus, a lack of pollen doesn’t necessarily indicate illegal honey, but if you want to be absolutely sure that your honey is on the up-and-up, you may want to buy from a local source. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( Quotable “Although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.” ― [A.A. Milne]( The House at Pooh Corner Giphy Million-Dollar Question Do bears really love honey? --------------------------------------------------------------- From Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book to A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and all of the Disney iterations that came after, we’ve long been told that bears have a single-minded obsession with snagging the sticky-sweet stuff. As it turns out, that tale isn’t quite true. Bears do go after beehives; that much is accurate. But what they’re actually after, [according]( to the North American Bear Center, are the bees themselves—specifically the pupae, larvae, and eggs, which are great sources of fat and protein. Bears eat the honey too, but it’s just icing on the cake. Bottled up The bear necessities --------------------------------------------------------------- (Dutch Gold Honey) The bear-and-honey legend also had an impact on Ralph and Luella Gamber, founders of Dutch Gold Honey. In 1957, the owners of the mom-and-pop business decided to pour their wares into bear-shaped plastic bottles to differentiate their product. The marketing ploy worked. Before the bear, Dutch Gold was a three-hive business that required Ralph to hold down a full-time job as a meat salesman. Once the ursine bottle hit shelves, the Gambers could barely keep up with demand. They ultimately grew the business into a [$40 million]( company. Worried about infringing on Winnie-the-Pooh’s intellectual property, the Gambers failed to patent the package, opening up the market for a proliferation of imitators. Some competitors tried their own variants on novelty shaped packages, including a [Sioux Honey]( bottle shaped like a Native American girl. Thus far, only the bear has stood the test of time. AP/Jens Meyer Pop quiz In 2012, bees in the Alsace region of France mysteriously produced blue honey. What was the culprit? PesticidesM&MsRare digestive enzymesDelphinium flowers Correct. Area bees were picking up sugary waste from a biogas plant that processed M&Ms waste 2.5 miles away from their apiary. The blue honey wasn’t sold and measures were taken to better secure the waste. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Living it up in the city The flight of the urban bee --------------------------------------------------------------- Not all bees flit through farmland or cavort in the countryside. There are plenty of honeybees that enjoy big-city life, especially in New York City, where city beekeeping was [legalized]( in 2010. Ritzy hotels and restaurants are big proponents of tending their own stash of bees to produce hyper-local honey for patrons. The Waldorf-Astoria alone has more than [300,000 bees]( in six beehives, making more than 400 pounds of honey every year. It’s easy to assume that urban bees have a tougher time of it than their countrified counterparts, but [studies have found]( the opposite to be true. Urban bees experience a number of perks, including higher temperatures, fewer pesticides, and a wide variety of plant life to choose from in a relatively small area. Watch this! Harvesting honey --------------------------------------------------------------- How do beekeepers claim all of that sweet, sweet honey without getting stung by a hive full of angry bees? Like this. Take me down this 🐝 hive! Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie was, uh, a really weird animated movie about the platonic relationship between a bee and a human woman. It received a pretty lukewarm reception when it came out in 2007, making [$126.6 million]( at the box office—not enough to cover the $150 million it cost to produce. However, as the children who watched the movie during its heyday grew up into full-fledged internet users, the memes began appearing. They became so prevalent that Vanity Fair did a [think-piece]( on it, declaring that the decade-old movie “won” 2016. Take a look, and when you’re done there, you can [walk through some of the memes]( with the creators of Bee Movie. Giphy Poll How do you feel about Bee Movie? [Click here to vote]( It’s Seinfeld at his best.It’s Zellweger at her best.It’s no one at their best. The fine print In yesterday’s poll about [braille]( 55% of you admitted you’ve never tried learning it. Today’s email was written by [Stacy Conradt]( edited by [Jessanne Collins]( and produced by [Luiz Romero](. ✏️ [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20honey.&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 🐰 [What have you been obsessing over this week?](mailto:obsession%2Bprompt@qz.com?cc=&subject=Take%20us%20down%20a%20rabbit%20hole.%20&body=) 📬 [Forward this email to a friend](mailto:replace_with_friends_email@qz.com?cc=obsession%2Bforward@qz.com&subject=Honey%3A%20A%20buzzworthy%20subject&body=Thought%20you%27d%20enjoy.%20%0ARead%20it%20here%20http%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2Femail%2Fquartz-obsession%2F1341467) Getting to know you 👋 Are you a Reddit user? Or just want to meet fellow deep-divers? [Introduce yourself at r/ObsessionObsessives](. The correct answer to the quiz is M&Ms. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! 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