Consuming a whole foods plant-based diet, I never fully comprehended why vegans don’t eat honey. After all, it seems innocent enough. Upon further inquiry, I located a definition of veganism by Donald Watson in 1944 that adds clarity and explains a lot,
“Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals .” (Stepaniak).
Still yet, I have questioned what could possibly be wrong with eating sweet honey? It seems harmless. Bees make an abundance of honey and people get to enjoy the surplus. Right? Well, that’s not quite the whole story. Inspired last year by an episode of Shark Tank that showcased a company selling ‘bee free honee‘, I did a little inquiry of my own. What I found was surprising to say the least.
First off, let me begin with a few honey bee facts to introduce you to our curious little farming ally. “Honey bees are at the top of their part of the evolutionary tree,” says James and Carol Gould (respectively, a Princeton professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a full-time science writer. Although known as insects, they are technically an animal. They communicate with each other through sound, vibration and dance-like movements. Possessing complex nervous systems, bees are capable of feeling pain. They have an intricate social system and different bees carry on a host of tasks as members of the colony. Females are the worker bees while the males are called drones and are potential mates for a queen, dying after the mating ritual. Besides making honey, bees perform a number of diverse jobs, from cleaning out the hive and tending to the queen. There are more than ten jobs that varying honey bees perform in the hive. Interestingly enough, to make a pound of honey, bees must visit two million flowers (Wonderopolis Wonder of The Day #51) and are thought to collectively cover as much as 55,000 miles in their wondrous effort. Making as many as 30 trips in a day, a single bee will cover as much as 500 miles in her lifetime flying 12 – 20 mph. (Fascinating Facts About HoneyBees) To put that in perspective, most power boats have a cruising speed of only 12 – 16 mph. Yes, quite the wondrous little creature capable of such phenomenal distance and speed.
While everyone knows that honey comes from bees, what most people don’t know is that the high demand for honey has changed harvesting practices. Once an intriguing hobby for a small town enthusiast, beekeeping has grown in to a large scale distribution industry. What were once careful farming practices practiced by a select group of people who were intrigued by bees and often concerned for the members of their hive has been replaced by large scale operators. Bees are no longer the focus but their by-products are. Everything from beeswax, to bee pollen to bee propolis and royal jelly to honey. To satisfy the world’s growing sweet tooth, in the last 50 years commercial farms have become a new norm and the community bee zealot is virtually extinct. With the advantages of large scale bee farming also comes drawbacks. Sadly, many impact the welfare of bees and influence the global agricultural economy. You might imagine placing bees in a box and then carefully extracting the honey out of the box without sustaining any stings as the bees defend their honeycomb from the intruding thief (bees generally sacrifice their own life in defense of their honey often dying after stinging someone). Imagine sparing the bees from any other incidental injury or death that might occur as a result of working with and moving the box and the hive. Bees are easily wounded in this delicate task, they lose wings, sever legs, or even die. It used to be a general practice that farmers would wait until the honeycomb was full in late fall and then extract 30% of the honey at any one time and leave the other 70% of the honeycomb remaining for the bees to feed upon during the winter. The rational of farmers was that bees don’t need or use all of their honeycomb. While that may be true, think of it from the perspective of the bee. The extra honey might be akin to money in the bank for a rainy day or a slow season. Having plenty of food on hand is important during times of drought, during a deep freeze, or even during a season of excessive rain. To add to their dilemma, modern commercial farmers often remove not only 30%, but the entire honeycomb. They replace it with artificial sugar water instead. In some operations, commercial beekeepers eradicate or kill the entire hive after harvesting the honey. If you think replacing it with artificial sugar water might sound like the more humane of the two choices, think again.
Bees don’t produce honey just for the fun of it. Honey is what sustains and nourishes the entire colony. Bees get started on their honeycomb in the spring and finish by autumn so as to have an ample supply of honey to last for the winter months when in the wild, they take a reprieve from making honey and take on a host of other duties. When the honey is excavated, they become slaves to the perpetual task of honey making while many other important duties are neglected. While the idea of sugar water may seem good in theory, it fails miserably and leaves the bees without the vital nutrients they receive from their own homemade honeycomb that is full of essential micro-nutrients not found in corn syrup or sugar water. Without proper nourishment, entire colonies can crash as their immune systems cannot handle the demands of their environment. Without honey as nourishment, bees become susceptible to disease and starve from malnutrition. Some bees simply stop returning back to the bee hive and cannot survive on their own.
Other commercial practices involve killing the queen bee after a short two years to capitalize on her most productive years Rather than enjoying a lifespan double that or more, the next successor is artificially inseminated in lieu of being chosen by the members of the hive. In commercial farms, the emphasis is on production not the welfare of the animals. The queen bees often get their wings clipped to discourage her from leaving the hive and starting another hive elsewhere which would decrease honey production and reduce profits. Furthermore, with bees being specially bred to increase honey production, this selective breeding narrows the gene pool increasing susceptibility to disease and the result is population decline. Another practice of commercial bee farmers is that they often import other varieties of honey bees in to their hives for diversity which further causes an increase in the risk of disease from foreign environments. These diseases can then be spread to other vital pollinators (birds, bats, butterflies and some flies).
The globalization of honey has its own downsides. The emissions created by the export and import of honey around the globe is enough for concern. The U.S. importation of honey is more than double that of the U.K. where 95% of their honey is imported from China and Turkey. The U.S. is the world’s highest importer second only to Germany (World Trade Daily). In a very real sense, honey harvesting does not help the bees in any way, shape or form, it actually harms bees and the environment. (Vegansociety.com)
We have all heard that many species of bees are in peril, some dying off rapidly. There is a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder whereby entire colonies are collapsing for unknown reasons. While there is no one definitive explanation, there are many theories and while the media is often quick to blame pesticides for this massive decrease in bee population, while this is partly true, the honey industry also has its share of responsibility. Of course, other factors contribute to the decrease in bees such as pests introduced from overseas, the most infamous known as hive beetles. Without bees to pollinate the flowers, many plants simply do not fruit. Up to one third of the U.S. agriculture relies on bees to pollinate their crops. With bee populations failing, this potentially has tremendous impacts on our future supply of food as more farmers are facing the daunting task of hand pollinating their plants. In my own backyard, I have seen a decrease in the number of bees pollinating my passion fruit (aka lilikoi). Without any fruit for more than two years, I joined the ranks of those who are hand pollinating their vines. While hand pollinating may not personally cost me anything now, if the bee pollinators go extinct, imagine all farmers hand pollinating their fruits. “The USDA estimates that honeybees do $11-$15 billion in work for American farmers each year. That’s a cost that would be absorbed by American shoppers, resulting in shocking bills at the register. Spikes in prices would have real socioeconomic consequences…pushing fresh fruits and veggies out of reach of the working poor, who already consume less of these items than their wealthier neighbors.” (AC Shilton, Vice) Imagine a world where a single apple is $16. Our pocket books would not be the only thing suffering in the absence of bees. Bees create diversification. Without bees, the current diverse and often exotic diet most people from industrialized countries enjoy worldwide would be boring in contrast. Bees are am integral part of our agricultural infrastructure and doing what we can do to support wild bee populations ought to become a priority. Learn what you can do to support the bees by clicking here.
Needless to say, while I have used many bee products and certainly have consumed more than my share of sweet honey over the years, I have a completely different perspective now. Perhaps the next time you entertain purchasing a bee product, you might consider other options that do not impact the welfare of bees. For myself, at least as far honey is concerned, I totally lost my taste for it after I started eating a mostly raw whole foods plant-based diet (my love of ice cream also vanished). The last thing I have an appetite for is more sweet food. I get all the sweet deliciousness my taste buds and belly desires from a variety of fresh ripe fruit. While honey does taste delicious, I can’t say I miss it and if not eating honey actually helps the bees and the environment then I feel good my diet is honey-free and bee friendly. Unlike bees, I can thrive without honey in my diet. For those that don’t consume a diet plentiful in fruits and still have an inkling for something sweet, in lieu of honey, you might allow your taste buds to discover other delightful alternatives such as bee free honee (a honey substitute made from apples), coconut sugar syrup, date syrup or date paste, yacon root syrup, maple syrup, coconut syrup or coconut nectar, agave nectar and stevia. (One Green Planet.)
I saw a post recently that addressed this very subject. Perhaps this will add perspective, imagine this:
‘Someone breaks in to your home, fills it with smoke, accidentally kills a few of your family members, dismembers some others, takes any belongings they deem you don’t need, while maintaining an attitude that somehow they are actually doing you a favor.’
I don’t know about you, but this made an impact for me. I never knew how important the honeycomb is to the bees and to their survival. While we like to point our fingers at the pesticide companies for the decline in the bee population, maybe they are not the biggest culprit after all and honey consumers have more of a hand in the demise of bees than anyone has taken the time to realize. Why haven’t we been told this before? Simply stated, ‘it is not good advertisement for the sale of honey.’
When I did eat honey, I always enjoyed raw honey and bought it fresh from local farmers who I thought cared about their bees. While I am sure they do, some may even believe they are helping the bees, now I understand if we really care about the bees and want them to survive, it is best to let them be wild. Please be honey free and bee friendly. I want my trees and vines to fruit with the help of the bees. Hand pollinating is time consuming and I certainly don’t do nearly the job the bees could do. My hope is that I can enjoy fresh fruit for years to come and for the children of the next generations to enjoy all the fruits we take for granted: applies, oranges, peaches, pears and more. Realize that if the bees don’t survive many species of plants will also perish. With the high price of manual labor, fruits that we take for granted could be cost prohibitive for most people. We are blessed by the bees; let us help them to flourish by letting them BEE.
Resources and Additional Reading on the Fascinating and Complex Life of Bees:
Balderrama, N. et al. (biologists) (1987). Behavioral and Pharmacological Analysis of the Stinging Response in Africanized and Italian Bees. Neurobiology and Behavior of Honeybees. R. Menzel & A. Mercer (eds.). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Breeeze, Tom D., Roberts, Stuart P.M and Potts, Simon G. The Decline of England’s Bees. Policy and Review Recommendations. University of Reading and Friends of the Earth Limited, April 2012.
Giordano, Catherine Fascinating Facts About Honey Bees: 20 Questions …with Answers, Owlocation: STEM: Entomology, May 2017
Gould, J. & Gould, C. (1988). The Honey Bee . New York: Scientific American Library.
Hoff, F. (Commercial Economics Division, Economic Research Service,USDA) (1995, April) Honey: Background for 1995 Farm Legislation. Agricultural Economic Report No. 708. A 1.107: 708.
Núñez, J. A., Almeida L., Balderrama N. and Giurfa M. (1997). Alarm Pheromone Induces Stress Analgesia via an Opioid System in the Honeybee. Physiology & Behaviour 63 (1), 75-80.
Shilton, A.C. What Would Happen If All The Bees Went Extinct Vice: Health: March 2017
Stepaniak, J.”The Name Game: Coming to Terms.” http://www.vegsource.com/jo/essays/namegame.htm.
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