Comments on: Is Honey Vegan? Yes…but no?

By: Kate Yelkovan

Kate Yelkovan — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 21:43:34 +0000

The writer is very inconsistent and while I totally understand the honey debate, if you “sometimes” eat cheese pizza you’re not vegan by any means. That just means you eat a majority plant based diet, and sometimes eat animal products. I don’t know how this is hard to understand.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:33:00 +0000

I’m sorry, but eating pizza from NYC just because you want the taste or experience does not make you vegan. In fact, it’s not even specifically the eating that is what makes you nonvegan, but the fact that you would selfishly ignore everything that it stands for just for you palate, which makes you really no different than a nonvegan person. I’m disappointed and saddened by your post, please stop confusing the meaning of veganism for your own selfish reasons.

By: Lane

Lane — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:23:20 +0000

Hi Cameron,

Thanks for the comment. Yes, tolerance and compassion should be rule #1 for vegans.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 17:55:30 +0000

I am new to veganism, and I still eat honey. I had a pretty indepth conversation with another vegan on this topic a month ago and she was say how we are enslaving and abusing the Bee’s. I understand mass factor farms are bad, and vegans live with compassion for all fellow living entities. But were is line drawn. Nector is not a product of the bees just transformed by them. On that note, apples and other vegetables require Bee’s to polenate them that makes them a Bee’ bi-product. What I’m getting at is that we are in a symbiotic relationship with Bee’s if I get my Honey from a local farm whom truely enjoys his farm and the Bee’s that are apart of it; that fits in the number 1 rule of Veganism that being compassion

By: Jerry Kinard

Jerry Kinard — Sat, 16 May 2015 01:56:11 +0000

Personally, I prefer to use maple syrup instead of honey.

By: Fee

Fee — Wed, 13 May 2015 16:14:06 +0000

Excellent article. Anyone who thinks that honey extraction from a hive is harmful to the bees, or indeed proposes that the feeding of sugar water to bees makes them unhealthy or is the reason for colony collapse clearly has never had any experience of bee keeping. Laughable, frankly.

By: Chandler Klebs

Chandler Klebs — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:23:21 +0000

“Yes, you can be vegan one day per week. If you choose to eat honey, I believe you are not “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” And I have to ask the less flexible members of the vegan community, what exactly is the goal here? Because it seems to me, if you are coming at veganism from an animal rights or environmental perspective, every little bit helps.”

I agree that every little bit helps. I think that it is still beneficial if people eat less animals products. The fact that some of us are unable to filter out every possible animal product that may be in some of the products we buy is no reason that we can’t gradually reduce our reliance on animal products. Particularly, I think that the consumption of meat will be the first thing that needs to be eliminated. We can work on the other issues over time.

By: Martina

Martina — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 15:51:44 +0000

Hiya,

I think if you are going by the mark of ideological coherence then eating honey as a vegan cannot be justified; the bee’s hard labour is stolen from the bee, irrespective of the harm caused to the animal, this relationship is one of domination: the animal is exploited for the benefit of the exploiting species. Thus as a vegan you cannot justify this- irrespective of your culinary preferences.
There is however another debate amongst vegans and ecologists which concerns the preservation of bees. Unfortunately the use of neonicotinoids is resulting in bee colony collapse almost everywhere agricultural world. Bees are an essential link in all ecosystems of which they are part of, and an essential aspect ecostystem preservation. Now, there are types of bee king often referred to as ‘natural’ bee-keeping or ‘sustainable bee keeping’ which are designed to maintain the natural functions of the hive without interruptions. These forms of bee keeping have been seen as highly beneficial in the preservation of bees. The pragmatist vegan argument here, is that by purchasing natural or sustainable bee keeping honey, one is stimulating this kind of practice. I think it makes sense for a vegan to take this stance, though I myself have not yet decided, as it is the choice which has the highest beneficial impact upon other animals. This decision however would not be based on one’s culinary preferences!

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 05:03:56 +0000

Thank you so much for writing this. I consider myself vegetarian/vegan and use the terms interchangeably. I think there is too much pressure in the vegan community to be perfect, and it becomes close-minded and dogmatic, as in a religious stance. Everyone needs to work independently to find what makes them an animal activist and then converge together with the community, showing everyone else out there that we are a pleasant minded group of educated people. If the point of veganism is to be open-minded and accepting, kind and compassionate, than this argument should not even exist.

If we strive to eat organically and vegan, this is mostly without labels, isn’t it? Fruits, vegetables, grains, these don’t have labels. So why should be label ourselves so strictly? A label is pointless; its the cover on a black and white mindset.

With this said, I do eat a 99 percent vegan diet and always strive for this wherever I am. I recently bought a bottle of local raw honey while traveling, and its helping my terrible insomnia and sore throat (I’m an opera singer). So? I like honey. It feels right to me. And you better believe that I tried some cheese in Wisconsin. Will I ever again? Probably not likely, but if its a special occasion in a special place that means something important to me or you, I say go for it. A person can’t always get vegan pizza, sometimes its ok to be starving and pick off all the meat and cheese in an attempt to nourish your hunger and soul.

its the bigger picture people. remain flexible. rigidity in anything leads to withering.

By: Shmitty

Shmitty — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 19:40:17 +0000

Thank you for this post! It’s because of the dogmatic vegans out there that make me scared to admit to people that I’m vegan. I find when I take a non-judgmental stance when meat-eaters question my diet, they don’t make jokes or verbally attack me. I’ve had meat-eating boyfriends who converted to vegetarianism . I never showed them horrific videos or asked them to stop eating meat, they just decided to do it on their own. Maybe people would be more inclined to try being vegetarian/vegan if we stopped making ourselves look like the enemy. Sorry if it’s a little off topic. I guess the point I’m trying to make is I’m surprised at the lack of compassion a lot of vegans have, when veganism itself is about compassion. Fighting each other about the degrees of veganism doesn’t help anybody. I’ve seen vegans compare meat-eaters to Hitler, then flip their shit when non-vegans get upset about it. It just makes us all look bad. I view my veganism as a sort of religion. You don’t convert people with threats & accusations, you push them further away.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 04:33:58 +0000

I used to be a strict vegan. I read the ingredient lists, and looked up information. I made sure to eat a variety of healthy foods to make sure I was getting all the nutrients that I needed. However, my health continued to deteriorate so I decided to go ahead and add honey back into my diet. While this has not made me super healthy or anything, I do feel a little better and I think it is because honey has healing properties. By the way, I love bees and am an advocate for bee rights. I also only eat raw, organic honey. In order for this honey to be considered organic, they have to have a natural, organic diet themselves.

By: ashley davis

ashley davis — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 08:27:35 +0000

I am a vegetarian. I have been working on converting to vegan. I am not giving up honey. My stepdad is a beekeeper and we raise our Bees humanely. We only harvest the racks on top of the beehive, and leave the bottom racks of honey for the bees to eat . The only time they get sugar water is when it’s a new hive until they build up a supply of honey. We never take all of it, and in the winter we save back racks of honey to go into the hive to fill it and wrap them up for winter. The only time our Bees have died is if a mouse gets in the hive. They can come and go as they please, and my mom plants organic clover and flowers foe them. I understand the cruelty of animals etc. I avoid it at all costs in everything. If a bee or a cow is raised humanely with room to roam I don’t see any harm in sharing their by products. If they are not starving and treated well what’s the harm? Other than fulfilling some rules?

By: Jenni

Jenni — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 19:44:18 +0000

I am actually really surprised by this… I thought vegans were supposed to be selfless individuals when it came to all living beings aside from plants…

To hear that you would consider yourself a vegan and will do something knowing that it is hurting/killing an animal just to serve a moment of pleasure/self indulgence is quite frankly, disappointing.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 15:25:35 +0000

I’m new to this ‘vegan’ thing and, quite honestly, I could be easily turned off to the “drink the cool-aid” mentality many of you seem to have. I am not referring to the writer (I really appreciate your article!!) but to those who look down at the rest of us because we’re not dogmatic like you. I am coming to this vegan thing, more appropriately “plant-strong”, for a quite different reason. I want to be healthier. We have chickens and even rabbits (still figuring out what to do with them all…lol) and quite honestly have not had a problem with eating animals…until I was educated on the downside of animal proteins. I have diabetes, heart disease, etc in my family, as does my husband. I want a healthier future for myself and my children. I want to lose weight and feel better! I don’t want to see animals harmed which is why I raise chickens and rabbits. But I would agree with the second to last post-er in asking can’t we all just get along? What about sharing the compassion with other PEOPLE that you supposed have for animals! We raise bees and I’m not getting rid of them. There are too many benefits to having them around. I’m glad I don’t call myself a vegan, some of you sound mean. I will ‘label’ myself an herbivore, or call myself ‘plant-strong’ as previously stated. I still won’t eat animals, and avoid animal products as much as humanly possible but my bees will pollinate my garden, as well as the neighborhoods gardens. My husband has been stung twice and that’s not a lot of bee death. I’m ok with it, because, as previously stated, insects die in large scale farming. My bees are very happy. They are not caged, they are free to go where they want. I will continue to consume honey. To the author, thank you for your article! I am not a perfect person (praise God for His grace and mercy in saving me) and I appreciate the freedom you afford me in not being a perfect ‘vegan’ as well!

By: Lane

Lane — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 20:20:10 +0000

Hi Lisa

Thanks for you comment. I couldn’t agree more.

Lane