Keep Brookfield Farm's Entire Raw Honey Selections At Bellingham Farmers Market

Petition To Keep Brookfield Farm's Entire Selection Raw Honeys from Naturally Treated, Antibiotic-Free Washington hives in the Bellingham Farmers Market.

We have sold our own and our friend’s raw honeys at our booth for over a year. All our honeys are labeled with the name and location of the apiary that produced the honey. Both our websites have information where the consumer can read about the honeys and the beekeeper who maintain the hives.

The Board has suddenly demanded that we remove of our friends’ Raw Honeys from Naturally Treated, Antibiotic-Free Washington hives from our market booth by June 30, 2014.

We are allowed to sell these honeys under the rules of the Washington State Farmers Market Association.

We meet all the printed requirements to sell these honeys under the Bellingham Market’s Bylaws and Vendor Requirements.

We are the only sellers of Raw Honey from Naturally Treated, Antibiotic-Free Hives at the Market.

Background:

The Board first falsely stated that we were in violation of Market Association rules.

The Market Association assured us that we were in complete compliance with the rules.

The Board then stated that they “felt” that we did not meet the requirements as food processors, which is our market designation. We take 650 pound barrels of raw crystallized honey and maintain the raw state as we process it to enable customers to buy it in forms that the consumer can use.

We asked the Board to state their unprinted requirements.

No requirements were stated. The Board again stated they “felt” our friend’s Raw Honeys from Naturally Treated, Antibiotic-Free Washington hives should be removed.

Thus, although we meet the printed rules of the Bellingham Farmers Market and the Washington State Farmers Market Association, the removal of our friends’ Raw Honeys from Naturally Treated, Antibiotic-Free Washington hives is based on the Board’s “feelings.”

If our customers would like to express their feelings about this removal, we invite them to do so.