Why don’t vegans eat honey?
Image by mlhradio
Berclair School, Bee County, Texas. In an open field in front of the Berclair Mansion sits an abandoned schoolhouse, filled with faded and broken memories of decades past.
If there is one thing I have learned about Texas, it’s that Texas is filled with abandoned schoolhouses. I’ve run across all sorts of schools all over south Texas – from one-room shanties in the hills of Payton’s Colony or the desert plains of Comstock; to boarded up structures in Gillett and Quihi; to huge half-destroyed high schools in Asherton and Catarina. So it was no surprise to run across an abandoned school in Berclair.
The town of Berclair sprang up in the 1890’s when the railroad was built across the Coastal Bend. While it did serve the local ranchers, Berclair never really exploded, topping out at just 350 residents at its largest. Then the Great Depression hit, and like many small Texas towns, it never really recovered – dropping down to sixty to seventy residents until recently.
I have no idea of exactly when this little schoolhouse closed its doors, but it looks like it must have been at least a few decades ago. Inside, I did find a reunion sign for the Class of 1948. Now the building is filled with some junk scattered around the floor, plus it looks like has been used for storage for various community organizations at one time or another.
The front door opens up into a single central hallway that leads to another door at the rear. The entire left side of the building is one large room, which could be divided into two classrooms, and a raised section towards the rear that can serve as a stage. Off to the right, two smaller rooms filled with trash. A stairway heads to the rafters and attic, doubling as a storage area. In back, separated from the main building are the restrooms.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information at all about this school online. Although the schoolhouse was open to the elements with trash and some graffiti, it appears it has been cleaned up in the past (for class reunions, for example), and will no doubt be fixed up again in the future. Pictures taken March 7, 2009.
Question by sunshine1961: Why don’t vegans eat honey?
I understand fully why vegans don’t eat milk and eggs because I know how cruel the meat industry is when dealing with animals…but what is the deal with honey…are the bees mistreated. I’m serious with this question because my sister raises bees and she takes very good care of them…of course she only has a few hives and only takes a very small amount of their honey. I think she only robs the hives three or four times a year and always leaves plenty for the bees.
Okay I looked at the website in answer number 2 and now I believe I understand why. Thank you.
Give your answer to this question below!
14 Responses to Why don’t vegans eat honey?
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Bees have eyes. Vegans don’t eat anything that has eyes or their by products.
I’m a Level 5 Vegan. I don’t eat anything that casts a shadow. Although potatoes have eyes…..
Miesplz
June 22, 2012 at 8:19 pm
Check out http://www.vegetus.org for more information.
VeggieTart
June 22, 2012 at 8:48 pm
For ethical reasons, vegans refuse to eat or use any animal products. The strict vegans won’t wear wool either, even though the sheep aren’t killed to get the wool. Silk is another no-no, since it comes from silkworms.
ktrb
June 22, 2012 at 8:59 pm
good question…have no clue. I know MANY vegans and they all use local honey. Beats me.
morningstar9292
June 22, 2012 at 9:35 pm
It depends what kind of vegan they are, and what their reasons are.
Some won’t consume any kind of animal product.
tonalc1
June 22, 2012 at 10:15 pm
bees are animals, and vegans dont eat anything that have to do sth with anymals, I am vegetarian and I do eat honey, just like eggs and milk products, I grew up in a small willage and I concider that those animals are not misstreated (if you dont pick up the eggs on the farms the chicken will eat it, and if you misstreat a lactating cow she wont give any milk or very little because of the stress, the bees are also making more honey than they really need).
Biljana P
June 22, 2012 at 11:05 pm
two reasons i can think of…
1.
the honey contains an enzyme from the GI tract of the bee (yummy!) thus it has an animal bi-product in it.
2.
honey is harvested basically by animal slavery.
these reasons are why, the former is a dietary reason, and the latter is a moral reason.
Joe B
June 22, 2012 at 11:41 pm
It comes from bees..
So it’s an animal product..
CaitieCatastrophe
June 22, 2012 at 11:56 pm
You are stealing from the bees.
If you are a vegan, ethically you do not support any practice which exploits an animal, or in this case insect.
smedrik
June 23, 2012 at 12:06 am
I am a vegan but never really thought that I shouldn’t eat honey. I just got 3 jars of Manuka honey because it’s supposed to work wonders. Now I have to ponder the plight of bees in captivity, being used, manipulated and hoodwinked by humans. I could have done without this extra guilt trip.
Trooper
June 23, 2012 at 12:38 am
Bees are animals.
http://www.vegetus.org/honey/nomenclature.htm
Q. R.
June 23, 2012 at 1:15 am
Ok to the guy who said vegans dont eat anything with eyes–bees might have eyes, but honey isnt made from the ACTUAL bee–it’s derived from what the bee produces.
jemmamomma
June 23, 2012 at 1:51 am
Sure, the bees aren’t mistreated, but the point is that vegans don’t ANY animal products. But really, being vegan is about doing everything that you can. Some vegans believe that eating honey is ok, and that is totally fine with me. It’s just a personal choice based on values and the reasons for veganism – some people only do it for health reasons, anyway.
*be beautiful, be yourself*
June 23, 2012 at 2:17 am
Is honey vegan?
This question is one that causes disagreement among vegans. Honey is a regurgitated syrup processed by a living being for its own nutritional needs and that of its young. Because it is produced by bees, which are living beings, many vegans consider honey an animal product and will not consume it. Another issue for vegans is the production of honey. Bees are almost always killed accidentally during the harvest of honey, and sometimes queens are killed intentionally during honey production. Beekeepers remove the honey from the hives and replace it with a sugar and water mixture, so the emerging young bees have to eat a substitute, in much the same way as do calves , which are given a substitute for cow’s milk so that humans can drink it instead.
Beeswax. Honeycomb.
Wax obtained from melting honeycomb with boiling water, straining it, and cooling it. From virgin bees. Very cheap and widely used. May be harmful to the skin. In lipsticks and many other cosmetics (especially face creams, lotions, mascara, eye creams and shadows, face makeups, nail whiteners, lip balms, etc.). Derivatives: Cera Flava. Alternatives: paraffin, vegetable oils and fats. Ceresin, aka ceresine, aka earth wax. (Made from the mineral ozokerite. Replaces beeswax in cosmetics. Also used to wax paper, to make polishing cloths, in dentistry for taking wax impressions, and in candle-making.) Also, carnauba wax (from the Brazilian palm tree; used in many cosmetics, including lipstick; rarely causes allergic reactions). Candelilla wax (from candelilla plants; used in many cosmetics, including lipstick; also in the manufacture of rubber and phonograph records, in waterproofing and writing inks; no known toxicity). Japan wax (Vegetable wax. Japan tallow. Fat from the fruit of a tree grown in Japan and China.).
Vegans don’t eat honey. You may wonder why. The stereotypical image of a beekeeper as a person with a few hives in their back garden is all very nice, but is far removed from the truth.
Most honey bees are managed by factory bee farmers, who routinely kill queen bees every one or two years (as do back-garden beekeepers, despite the fact that the queens can live for up to five years). They then replace them with new ones, subject to them having survived the incoming shipping process (which can involve over-heating, under-heating, damage though bad handling, etc). Hives are also often “split” in half by keepers.
At the onset of winter, some beekeepers kill all of bees in their hives, for purely economic reasons. Even when this isn’t done, around 10-20% of the bees may die “accidentally” or on purpose during the winter season. All of this is aside from the bees that die during the process of hives being checked upon and the honey being removed.
So, eating honey is only one more example of supporting practices that exploit and cause harm and death to animals – needlessly. Maple syrup, on the other hand, is fine – and a very easy switch to make.
kipperkat
June 23, 2012 at 3:14 am