An interesting article in today's Guardian about the increased sales of speciality bread: 
"A report by the research group Mintel shows that Britons are buying fewer sliced supermarket loaves than ever and switching instead to speciality loaves, bagels, wraps and pitta.

Mintel's report, Bread and Baked Goods, analysed bread consumption in Britain over the past five years and found instore bakery sales were up 6.5% this year, largely due to the growing popularity (particularly among the under-35s) of speciality loaves.

Mike Coupe, group commercial director at Sainsbury's, said sales of products from the chain's 400 instore bakeries were growing at roughly twice the rate of those baked off site in factories. "There's a move away from what we call 'plant bread' towards artisanal products baked in house," said Coupe.

Consumers also watch Paul Hollywood plait a loaf and want to do it themselves, it seems. Sales of bread-baking ingredients have also been strong "thanks to shows like Great British Bake Off" added Coupe.

Sales of bread makers are also on the up, according to Will Jones, buyer for small electricals at John Lewis.

He said: "We are definitely noticing a trend for homemade bread baking … and it's not just the humble loaf we're making but we're also experimenting with more exotic varieties such as focaccia and rye breads, which is reflected by sales of our bread makers, which have risen 29% month on month."

Click here for the full articlehttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/oct/04/david-cameron-britons-sliced-loaves-bread

Article in today's Daily Mail:
Its antibacterial properties are thought to help combat various ailments, including skin problems and allergies.
However, rogue producers and stores have been accused of passing off cheap baker’s honey as manuka.
The Food Standards Agency has now issued a nationwide alert to all trading standards departments asking them to watch out for fakes.

The main honey suppliers’ organisation in New Zealand believes 1,700 tons of manuka honey are produced there every year, but 1,800 tons are being sold in the UK alone. 
And they estimated that 10,000 tons of what is supposed to be manuka honey are sold around the globe, suggesting that consumers are paying premium-level prices for misleading products.
John Rawcliffe, from the Unique Manuka Factor Honey Association, said: ‘There is potentially huge fraud. 
‘There are higher and ever-increasing volumes of honey being labelled as manuka that are not manuka.’ 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401884/Stung-fraudsters-cheap-honey-sold-liquid-gold-manuka-variety-45-jar.html#ixzz2d4zftGQR 

What happened: More than a third of managed honey bee colonies were destroyed in Scotland last winter, twice the amount lost the previous year, according to research by the University of Strathclyde.

The smaller bee population poses a serious threat to agricultural yields because plants rely on pollination. A limited food supply would also cause a rise in food prices.

Researchers said the losses were caused by extreme weather conditions, but the use of pesticides also played a role in the destruction. The Scottish government announced a £200,000 fund earlier this year to help bee farmers restock and rebuild colonies.

Key quote: "Honey bees worldwide are having to contend with habitat loss and reduction in variety of forage sources due to pressures of intensifying land use, increasing spread of new and old pests – caused by globalisation of trade in bees and bee products – as well as possible adverse effects of agricultural pesticides," said Dr Alison Gray, co-author of the study. "For bees in northern Europe, poor weather conditions – combined with these other factors – are certainly making beekeeping a challenge and survival difficult for honey bees generally".

Why it matters: Bees' pollination services increase the yield of many commercial crops – some by up to three times. Without this pollination there will be less food, and scarcity leads to price rises. Other pollinators could do the job, but they are threatened by bad weather, habit and forage loss, and honeybee hives are easily transported from orchards to fields. So, you'd think it would be in government's interests to look after bees.

In England and Wales, a similar level of bee mortality was recorded as in Scotland and for the same reasons, but here no fund was available to help bee farmers buy new bees to restock their apiaries. The bee farmers had to use savings or take out bank loans to rebuild their colonies. Insect pollination (of which much is by honeybees) has been valued at £400m per annum to the UK economy and €153 bn per annum globally.

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/21/bees-buzzfeeds-pesticides-food-prices

What happened:
Campaigners in the US and Canada named today as national honey bee day to raise awareness on the plight of honey bees in local communities. Cities across the country celebrated with festivals to educate people on ways to protect the bee population and on beekeeping.

"Their whole ecosystem is crashing," Lisa Arkin, director of environmental group Beyond Toxic, told Oregon's KVAL news channel. "Without bees we would lose a third of the food that comes to our tables every day".

Why it matters: Raising awareness about the importance of honeybees and other bees and pollinators to our ecosystem and our diet is vital in the fight to help them. So a national honey bee day in the US and Canada is important. Hopefully it will lead to a new generation growing up much more knowledgeable about the benefits of insects and why we need to live in harmony with them.

Very interesting article in The Observer yesterday: 

US melissopalynologist (let's call him a "pollen detective") Vaughn Bryant found that 75% of honey on US supermarket shelves contained no pollen at all having been through an ultra-filtration technique perfected by Chinese producers. Without pollen there's no real proof of the country of origin (pollen acts as the honey's DNA) and therefore Bryant argues no real proof that the product is legally honey – as opposed to dyed fructose corn syrup. 
It takes somewhere in the region of a million flower visits to make one jar of honey. One colony can produce just 50-100 jars per year. This is precious stuff. But we consume it in graceless fashion: in bulk and at the cheapest price. In a good year, we produce just 7,000 tonnes in the UK. Over a quarter of honey sold in the UK is imported from China...which begs the question, is it really honey that we are buying?

Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/11/organic-honey-any-such-thing