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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So, I’m a vegetarian who is allergic to eggs and dairy, but I’m not vegan because I eat honey. Apparently, vegans aren’t supposed to use wool either because of the whole exploitation of animals thing. Think of it as the viewpoint of child labor is wrong, so exploitation of animals is wrong. I hope that helps.
I totally agree with you.
I don’t understand the honey thing either.
I have seen many claim that taking the honey is cruelty to the bees but besides the sugar water thing, the bee keepers I knew never took ALL the honey anyway. Honey bees make way more than they themselves need, thats why our pioneer ancestors could harvest it, why bears would find it and yet the honey bees continued on and were not wiped out.
And the bees were taken to warm climates when the cold hits the northern parts of the country. They hives have to be set close to a source of water. As you said they fly where ever they want. They pollinate all the crops that vegans and vegetarians depend on, increasing the yeilds naturally.
Its a win/win situation.
sigh.
Let the thumbs down begin.
Vegans don’t eat it because it comes from the bee.
Check out mine?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aut_uFbP.4ZOshZy5McA1xvty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20110225104209AAgd2tE
Agave nectar is a good replacement for honey. As far as supporting the honey industry by eating organic fruits, there is not much you can do about it. I didn’t know about that but thanks for the info. I am trying to move towards becoming a non-eater. They say that by practise of ‘safe sun gazing’ you can just live on sun light and not worry about eating food. Then I won’t have to worry about harming any plants or animals….yay!
The bees made the honey for their population, not for another animal to come along and steal. If they were willing to give up their honey, bee keepers wouldn’t have to spray smoke around to sedate them.
In my opinion it is wrong to use animals for any kind of financial gain.
Farmers need bees to pollinate their crops, but they don’t need to then go in and take what they’ve worked so hard to produce and replace it with something else (which they do).
I don’t believe that you have a legitimate curiosity. Calling people stupid makes you lose your credibility. I think you had a different account before.
Interesting rant, but why do you think there are no wild bees left? Could it be because the invasive European honey bees have outcompeted the natural pollinators and now that Varroa mites are killing off honey bees the US is facing an economic disaster with no native pollinators left to do the job?
This is a great example of why biodiversity is so important. It insulates ecosystems against disturbance, so when one species is decimated by disease there are others to fill the roles. By reducing the biodiversity of various regions we have exposed ourselves to this kind of problem. But it is not the end of the world, as Einstein predicted. We can pollinate crops by hand if we really need to. Given a choice between the tiresome chore of pollinating flowers or starvation, I’m sure most people would leave the comfort of their home to help out in the field.
So beekeepers may receive indirect support from me through crop producers, just as meat industry execs might receive indirect support through my use of public transport (if the bus driver spends his or her wages on dead animals). The point is I choose the option which is least illogical in a world where blind consumption is a virtue, and reduce the amount of ecological harm by trying to only buy products which are sustainable. Not so hard to understand, is it?
I am vegan, but i eat honey as many do. I don’t see the bees being harmed, because they are still being fed the sugar/water solution.
I am vegan and I drink almond milk, LOTS of it everyday.
I choose to not eat honey because bees make honey, and are forced to make it for us to eat, I do not think humans should eat a bees honey.
Rant, rant, rant.
Personally, I love honey, but I do think the vegans have very good points.
Ultimately, it is none of my business what another person eats.
I grew up a long time ago.
We need bee-keeping to sustain our crops. Even vegan crops. One third of all food consumed in the US requires bee pollination. Most crops must hire bee-keeping services to pollinate their vast crops because local bee populations are not enough. Honey is one of the products of bee-keeping that keeps bee-keepers in business. So as you can see, even vegans exploit bees.
Bees are factory farmed just like any other other animal, they are the victims and are made to live in unatural conditions. Bees are exploited for profits and human consumption. The keepers only have their profits in sight and disregard the health and comfort of the bees, when there is signs of weakness or illness in the hive the keeper gases the bees or sets fire to the hive. This is exploiting creatures for human greed regardless of the neglect and suffering that is involved.
I don’t avoid honey per sey, it’s just not something that I actively seek. Reason being I just like the taste of agave nectar better, but if honey happens to be in something I eat, fine no biggie.
I believe that vegans are less against honey production, as that is natural, and more against taking away an animal’s food for our own benefit. You can believe that sugar water is healthier than honey all you want, but the fact is that bees make the honey for themselves to eat. It is the same reason that vegans avoid milk. Yes, the cow would produce it anyway, but the cow makes milk for their babies, not for us. It’s more of a philosophical thing. Are we the center of the universe? Does everything else exist for us to use? Vegans believe that at least when it comes to animals, the answer is no.
I’ve pointed that out several times: that honey farms lease their bees to fruit farms for pollination. The bees are trucked hundreds sometimes thousands of miles to do their “work”. Many of them die to just as they would if they were “working” on honey. But apparently some hypocritically vegans do not oppose the fruits and crops that are as much a product of the “slave” honey bee industry which they do object to.
th main reason is guess what: it against the “rules” according to a vegan website or other. These are mostly the “allowed/not allowed to eat” and “what I can/cannot” eat vegans who religiously follow the “rules” in fear of losing the right to claim they are vegans. And there are enough anal retentive vegans in this forum alone who tell them they cannot call themselves vegan f they do eat honey. So apparently, common sense and the ability to think for oneself is less important than maintaining the “cool” vegan tag.
There is even one who calls herself an “anarchist” complete with anarchist quotes and slogans on her profile page but who insists others must follow the vegan rules.