So I have a good friend that has been vegan for about 10 years, and we recently had a disagreement on honey if it's vegan or not. I was surprised to hear that she didn't avoid consuming it, where as I being new to this life style believe honey is not vegan and shouldn't be consumed. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Question Honey - vegan or not vegan?
- Thread starter andre1
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beancounter
The Fire That Burns Within
Val
Forum Legend
Bees are living creatures, => they are animals => honey is not vegan, as it derives from animals. Plus it's the product of cruel animal exploitation. So, you're right considering it a non-vegan product.
How would I go about explaining this to her without her feeling attacked. I'm very new to this lifestyle and shes been vegan for 10 years, before I made this change I avoided honey because I know how crucial our survival is and the bees we need to survive. So I think she found it silly that I avoided honey but consumed meat and other animal products
Val
Forum Legend
Perhaps you could start with a phrase like: "You know, recently i came across an article/i've been told/i accidentally got to know/etc. that plenty of bees are killed during the process of honey gathering/making, and their queen is 100% killed in a few years because she becomes unproductive (btw, it's similar to milk cows, who are being killed when they get old). I don't remember the precise numbers, but you could look it up and tell her the facts about how many thousand "trips" bees have to make to produce a tea spoon of honey (it's horrific). There are lots of surveys online anyway. Plus, they have proved that humans don't need honey neither to be healthy nor to treat the already existing illnesses.
Honey is not vegan.
However, I run against the grain here by saying I think it's very important to support small, local beekeepers. If that means buying honey or sending them donations, then please consider doing so. Even if you don't consume honey, we're all guilty of bee abuse. Commercial plant agriculture abuses bees by hiring large-scale commercial beekeepers, which move and relocate hives frequently to fertilize farms. It's very stressful and dangerous for the bees to be moved frequently and from crop to crop. Small scale and hobby beekeepers are far less abusive to the bees than these huge, commercial entities and their goal is for thriving, healthy bee populations.
However, I run against the grain here by saying I think it's very important to support small, local beekeepers. If that means buying honey or sending them donations, then please consider doing so. Even if you don't consume honey, we're all guilty of bee abuse. Commercial plant agriculture abuses bees by hiring large-scale commercial beekeepers, which move and relocate hives frequently to fertilize farms. It's very stressful and dangerous for the bees to be moved frequently and from crop to crop. Small scale and hobby beekeepers are far less abusive to the bees than these huge, commercial entities and their goal is for thriving, healthy bee populations.
My two cents' worth:
Honey is not vegan. However, it is probably wiser for a newly minted veg*n to refrain from trying to teach a long time veg*n about how to veg*n properly.
Honey is not vegan. However, it is probably wiser for a newly minted veg*n to refrain from trying to teach a long time veg*n about how to veg*n properly.
If small-scale, local beekeeping disappears and only large commercial beekeeping is available to fertilize plants, it's likely that many more bees will be subjected to cruel but "efficient" farming practices - assuming they can survive whatever is causing the massive colony collapse that is plaguing beekeeping everywhere, but especially large commercial operations.
