Question by farmgirl: What is the problem with honey?
Ive noticed on here that a lot of vegans are using almond milk as a substitute for real milk. It seems that vegans are all fine with eating any type of vegetable/fruit as because they do not contain animal by products. Over 60% of all US crops rely on honey bees to pollinate them, the major ones being almonds, kiwi, and apples. By buying any crops, you are supporting the honey industry. I find it unrealistic that vegans want to end consuming animal products including honey and switch to vegetables instead. Without beekeepers their will a dramatic decreases in the amount of crops we produce. Vegans rely on farmers to produce crops for them, the farmers rely on the beekeepers to pollinate their crops and the beekeepers rely on the honey market to keep them in business.

Ive seen a lot of really stupid excuses on here about why vegans choose not to eat honey. Some people claim they do not want to eat honey because they don’t want the honey bee population to keep falling. Right now their are basically no wild bees, when you see a honey bee fly by you can be almost certain it is one from a beekeeper’s hive. Without people having beehives, the honey bee population would be next to nothing.
I can understand why people find the dairy, meat, and egg industry cruel but I do not understand how you can find it cruel to produce honey. The bees are free to fly where ever they want, they are not being confined. If the hive wants to get up and move to a new home they can do so. To prevent this from happening, the beekeeper has to make sure the hive is not stressed and is being cared for well. When you extract the honey, you need to provide the bees with sugar water which many people find healthier for the bees than their honey. A couple bees may be accidentally crushed when opening the hive, but im sure you kill many more insects when you drive around in your cars.
I am interested in hearing your views on why do not choose to eat honey.
Ive been under the impression that most vegans do not eat honey… maybe im wrong though??
JLZ- Im not trying to be disrespectful toward other people decisions, I just wanted to point out some things about honey production and im legitimately interested in their answers about why they choose not to have it.
Im only saying some of the excuses are stupid like not wanting to decreases to bee population by eating honey or that beekeepers do not take care of their bees. I do thing its a legitimate point people make that the honey should be left for the bees because they made it for themselves.

In my opinion though, if you are adamantly against honey production than it does not make sense to go about buying fruits and vegetables. Either you should grow your own vegetables and have them pollinate by the wind or you should just except that you are supporting the honey industry. Its like leather, you may not be eating the meat but you are still supporting the beef industry by buying a leather jacket.
Mermaid- clearly you don’t know anything about beekeeping. The bees are not forced to live in an unnatural environment like you say. As I said before, they can swarm (leave their current home) if thy feel like it. I don’t know where on earth you have gotten the idea that beekeepers disregard the health and comfort of the bees, anyone who knows anything about beekeeping will tell you this is untrue. The fact that beekeepers burn diseased hives, is not really something to complain about. Would you rather they let those hives keep going an cause another diseases outbreak in honey bees?
This is the type of excuses for not eating honey that I was referring to, the ones that clearly are misinformed. The funny thing is that, that answer is receiving thumbs up.

Best answer:

Answer by O’brien Welsh
Pish Posh. I have been vegan for a very long time. I eat honey just fine.

1. Bee’s are still alive after making honey.
2. It’s not cruel for bee’s to make honey, because they choose to make honey… it’s apart of their life.
3. Honey is the only thing in the world that DOES NOT expire. EVER. There might be something else…but I know you can eat honey from the times of Ancient Egypt and not get a tummy ache.

…I am not sure exactly where you got this information…butttt. Honey is not a problem for me.

Whoever doesn’t eat it is a bit extreme.

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