could vegans eat this?
Image by USDAgov
Orren Fox, (aka @happychickens) a teenage chicken/bee keeper, from Boston, talked about learning where his food comes, from raising chickens in his backyard since he was nine. Now he has 32 chickens, 4 ducks and over 200,000 bees. He is the face of Agriculture’s future. He is joined by his father, Henry, during this continuation of a National Conversation on Local and Regional Food projects and how they offer economic opportunities to local farmers, ranchers and food entrepreneurs. The virtual conversation via twitter was from the White House, in Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 5, 2012. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
Question by kestral: could vegans eat this?
could a vegan, who is so because they won’t eat anything that comes from ‘exploiting’ animals, eat almonds?
80% of the world’s almonds are produced in California, and the vast majority of those are pollinated by bees that are shipped all over the country for just that purpose. Also, those same bees are used to pollinate orange trees in Florida, cherry trees in Washington, etc. etc. Scientists are beginning to think that this way of raising and using bees is one of the reasons for colony collapse. (they are dying of malnutrition, as they are eating one type of pollen at a time only, and not getting a well rounded diet)
Would a vegan who is so because of that principle have to check how their fruit and vegetables are pollinated before they ate them?
i guess i should have clarified, in huge bold letters, that i am NOT a vegan.
i also am NOT against normal vegans.
I know a few people who will not eat cheese, milk, eggs, etc, because it ‘exploits’ animals. i saw an interesting episode of the nature of things about bees, about how they are being shipped around to pollinate crops, and thought, would those people i know who are so extreme about not exploiting animals be able to eat food pollinated by bees that are being shipped around the country, or, in their eyes, exploited?
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
12 Responses to could vegans eat this?
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really by eating any food you’re taking it away from the bugs, causing malnutrition and death. you should consider giving up food all together.
Miniver
August 8, 2012 at 2:20 pm
Good grief. Analyze everything and you will end up eating nothing.
Nicki
August 8, 2012 at 2:41 pm
yes they could. but they’d feel bad. most vegans who are that stead fast would research the proper company to get there almonds, just like most types of gum is mad with milk. if you believe in something you’ll find a way to live it.
froger10198
August 8, 2012 at 3:31 pm
yes, i 100% agree with you. they don’t tell us these things because if we all knew what the government was doing we would make a movement to stop them. just like gelatin is made from animal bones and most candies have some small by products of animal in it. the best thing to do is grow your own and stay away from the government controlled food industry. because of them it’s ok to have a % of rat or mouse made in your bread.
john_kopczinsky
August 8, 2012 at 4:23 pm
Not to say that isn’t a bad way to treat the bees, but the reason for colony collapse is a mite. It decimated wild bee populations in Europe before moving to N. America. There are virtually no wild honeybees left in either continent now – just the domesticated ones that get their hives treated for the mite.
As for the ethical issues at hand in this situation, it would be very difficult to find out how a particular crop was pollinated. Therefore, a person would have to have an extremely and unhealthily limited diet to avoid crops pollinated by exploited bees, or to grow his/her own food which is not feasible for many people. I think a better solution to this problem would be to spread publicity about it and urge farmers to treat their pollinating bees more carefully and to make stricter regulations about it. Also, I don’t really know much about how they are treated in transport but I would think they wouldn’t be too roughed around since they would be very valuable if there are so few bees available that they have to be shipped all over the country.
Paranormal Kitty
August 8, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Check it out, without bees there would be no food!! Think, you “new vegans” kill me!!
DZRTJUL
August 8, 2012 at 4:30 pm
You dont understand what a vegan is, so why do you ask this?
Bees pollinate everything! They do it by themselves. They are not in chains.
Run4it
August 8, 2012 at 5:13 pm
I do not push my lifestyle of veganism on anyone and do not appreciate the naive and demeaning comments. We eat the way we do because that’s our own choice, just like you choose not to eat dog, cat or horse.
Seriously, bees pollinate everything. That is their internal life mission. Cows, pigs etc. are born into cruelty and are murdered because of animal eaters. Their internal life mission isn’t to get their throats cut. Please do your research.
vanama7
August 8, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Vegans can eat almonds because they aren’t an animal product.
e102ewan
August 8, 2012 at 6:03 pm
only a really srict vegan
Beau
August 8, 2012 at 6:05 pm
Actually, it’s production of honey–or the theft of honey and the killing of bees in the winter–that is responsible. Bees will pollinate plants, with or without human intervention. The honey they make is their food, not for us.
As vegans, we strive to reduce animal suffering, knowing it’s absolutely impossible to avoid it completely, short of living in a cave–although then folks like you would probably accuse us of evicting, oh, I don’t know, a bat or something. Besides, the animals on whose bodies omnis dine eat plants pollinated by bees, so they’re killing even MORE animals.
VeggieTart -- Praise Seitan!
August 8, 2012 at 6:11 pm
if you continued thinking like this u will die from starvation and yes you can eat almonds and oranges ect.
mY nAmE iS sGt FuDgE jR
August 8, 2012 at 6:19 pm