Vegans why is it agaisnt your belif to eat honey?

Question

I understand everything else. I may not agree but i understand it. Honey is natural bees don't die when we harvest it. We need them to live to make more. bee keepers also help pollenate are fruit and veggie crop without them we would not have the mass productions of food that we have in the US. So can someone in detail explain why they don't eat honey.

Answer 1

Honey is an animal product. Vegans don't eat animal products. Argal, vegans don't eat honey.

Honey is food for bees made by bees.  It doesn't belong to humans.  I don't eat honey because it's not mine to take.

Furthermore, bees ARE harmed and killed by honey harvesting.  Pollenation isn't doomed without bee farming... bees have been pollenating crops LONG before humans began harvesting bee vomit for food.

Answer 2

It's highly symbolic I guess--if it comes from animals, they by definition must stay away from it.

Answer 3

ok so firstly, when you are a vegan you can decide whether to use/ not use honey because of the same reasons above. this can also be seen as hypocritical because if you say you dont eat/ use animal products but you eat honey than technically you are going against your belief. a really good website to check out is http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm it gives a full explanation of why vegans dont eat honey.

Answer 4

I suppose its becaus ethey help in the process of making it, like a cow doesn't die in the production milk.

Answer 5

It's an animal product.  Yes, I agree with you, it is natural and they don't die, but it's an animal product.  Vegans don't eat animal products, whether it is flesh, dairy, eggs, products derived from animal parts, or honey.

Also, most of us believe that taking something from another being is supporting dominance of man over other creatures.

Answer 6

There are some good points people made about how bees are treated etc.  They do all this hard work for us pollinating our food crops, then we steal their hard work... their honey.

But, if they are treated well, and only a little honey taken, then I see no problem with it.  It's when it becomes a business that things get out of hand.  Personal bee hives in your backyard for your own honey, I'm okay with it.  It is stealing though.  It is their property.  It is their hard work etc.  So, there is where the debate is.  To steal or not to steal.    I just imagine that bees are friendly and will share a little with me.

Answer 7

Bee Farming

[1]

Bees are manipulated worldwide to produce many products for human use: honey, beeswax, propolis, bee pollen, royal jelly and venom. They are intelligent insects with a complex communication system.

Because bees are seen flying free, they are also often considered free of the usual cruelties of the animal farming industry. However bees undergo treatments similar to those endured by other farmed animals. They go through routine examination and handling, artificial feeding regimes, drug and pesticide treatment, genetic manipulation, artificial insemination, transportation (by air, rail and road) and slaughter.

Queen for a Year or Two

Queen bees are artificially inseminated with sperm obtained from decapitated bees. Queens are systematically slaughtered every two years because over time their egg producing abilities decline so their whole hive becomes unproductive and uneconomic. In Israel they are killed and re-queened every year.

Bees Crushed

When beekeepers manipulate combs many bees are crushed and killed. Hives have smoke puffed into them to calm bees down and make them easier to handle. Special excluders or devices that violate the bees' space are attached to hives to collect bee products from bees as they enter hives. Bees are separated from their hives by being shaken vigorously or jetted out with powerful streams of air. They may have their legs and wings clipped off. Clipping the wings of queen bees prevents them from swarming (flying off!).

Swarming is the natural way for reproduction, increase and survival of the species, at least in the wild. However, beekeepers are constantly trying to prevent this natural phenomenon and will use artificial pheromones, wing clipping and cage queens to keep their colony under control.

Artificial Feed

Beekeepers feed artificial pollen substitutes and white sugar syrup to colonies, often to replace the honey that has been removed. If these practices are carried out over long periods of time they lower hive productivity and lifespan. Colonies fed on their natural food - honey and pollen - result in larger emerging bees and more vigorous bees.

Pesticides

Beekeepers have become dependent on the use of synthetic pesticides and antibiotics to combat pests, and this has led to problems of toxicological hazards to beekeepers and bees, and risks of honey contamination.

Bees Transported

Bees are bought and sold worldwide. Transportation means bees may suffer stress, suffocation, overheating or cold. Many die entombed in their packaged coffins. Exotic bees are transported to strange countries and causing problems in the natural environment by spreading disease. They are subsequently treated as feral and nests are destroyed by pouring petrol in hives or bees killed by spraying with liquid soap.

Moneymaking

In a bid to improve the economics of honey production in South America in the 1950s the government ordered research into the use of the African honeybee. These bees are the most prolific honey producers in the world. Unfortunately, they are also extremely aggressive. All the native bees of South America were stingless but only three species made honey and certainly not in large quantities. Unfortunately, the African honeybees escaped. Thousands of hives of Africanised bees are now destroyed each year in the USA because they have been breeding with and destroying the more docile European honeybees, and they have stung and killed over 600 people.

Pollination

In many countries bees' services are bought for pollination purposes resulting in the bees (and their hives) being transported hundreds or thousands of miles. The food industry is now looking to artificially managed honeybees to provide to pollinate crops because wild bees and other insects (who would naturally pollinate crops) have been and are being destroyed by housing development, industrial pollution, pesticide poisoning, intensive farming practices, destruction of hedgerows, etc. The use of honeybees for pollination is now big business especially in places like New Zealand and America. However, even in the UK commercial beekeepers move hives (to find sources of nectar for honey production, and for pollination). Pollination fees are a very important component of the commercial beekeepers income. Commercially reared bumblebee colonies are now also extensively used to pollinate some glasshouse crops, particularly tomatoes.

Vivisection

Bees are also victims of vivisection and a vast number of experiments are carried out worldwide on these creatures. Unfortunately their generally quiet nature makes the honeybee easily manipulated and it has been claimed that they make an ideal laboratory animal. Many experiments are conducted for research and development into colonies that will produce more honey and thus make more money. In Japan they have irradiated bees to make their sting ineffective in an effort to achieve a 'stingless' bee for easier handling and in Australia trials are being undertaken on a protein in bee venom to treat cancer.

Answer 8

it is because it comes from an animal/living creature. i am not a vegan (i live on honey!) but it is because some places bees are worked too much for their honey.

Answer 9

It's an animal product like milk.

For some reason animal exploitation to grow food like bees for pollination or cows for manure doe not bother most of them.  Mostly because they are not suicidal.

Answer 10

its vomit

Answer 11

I never heard that, I'd be interested in the answer also