06 April, 2008

Thoughts on Honey

Farming bees for honey is essentially an act of domination. You can have bees, just as people running farm sanctuaries can take care of chickens, but things get... hm... 'sketchy' once you begin to take the things that they make. And bees make honey for themselves - namely, for their pupae. If you're taking that honey, they may not have enough to sustain the hive - that's one reason for CCS. Another is the idea that, because commercial bee farmers often take all the honey and give back only sugar water, the bees have been physically and psychologically susceptible to diseases because of that deficiency.

Taking honey from bees is an act of violence... It is an act that says, 'because I can, and because I 'own' you, I will do this.' It is might makes right all over again. Is veganism not against that? Is veganism not against all exploitation of animals - be they cows, mollusks or even bees? Why call yourself vegan if you do not subscribe to its implicit ethics - that animals are not ours to exploit? That animals are not ours to brutalise? That animals are not ours to steal from, however 'nicely' we may do it?

If I am correct, and eating/taking honey is an act of violence against bees just as is taking an egg from a chicken - for, by taking the egg from the chicken, you doom her to a short life of osteoporosis and nutritional deficiencies - then eating/taking honey is morally unacceptable.

It is acceptable, however, to begin colonies on your land to support your land without taking the honey. In this way you become symbiotes. In this way you become, not necessarily friends - which cannot happen when two live in such different worlds - but allies nevertheless. Just as it would be acceptable to put up birdhouses, it is acceptable to take care of bees - because you do not steal from them...

If they pollinate your fruit trees and plants, and if you eat those fruits and plants but do not take their honey, then you are truly symbiotic. You need each other, and you live in peace with each other, rather than either of you taking what was not made for you, but for someone else.

It boils down to this: you are an exploiter even if you exploit 'nicely' - so why not just not do it?

7 comments:

  1. I agree with you.

    I was annoyed by a recent post at Taste Better about honey and bees that essentially argued, "Since I can't prove to myself that they feel pain, I should treat them as if they don't feel pain." Totally not vegan.

    She even made an analogy to apples - hello? Taking an apple from a tree doesn't hurt the apple. You don't have to replace it with a fake apple. Stealing honey from bees hurts bees. You have to replace it with sugar-water. She should have used another analogy.

    Honey is not "nature's bounty" as she claims. Honey is a product of insects, something they make for themselves that has a use in their colonies. It's not for us.

    She even argues that stealing honey from bees is along the same lines as killing a mosquito. Uh, no. The mosquito poses a threat to you. If it bites you, you have a right to react, in order to protect yourself. You can choose to swat it away or kill it. There are moral gradations of the behavior, but it's nothing remotely similar to stealing honey from bees. There's no true conflict of interest, it's merely an assertion of domination. The human dominates the bees. It's one-way.

    The vegan line is between plants and animals, period. Those people who want to eat honey have another name: beegan. They should use it. They're NOT vegans.

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  2. >>>The vegan line is between plants and animals, period. <<<

    Speaking strictly to those who look to the Bible for moral guidance: God makes this same sharp demarcation on page 1 of the Bible: Plants are food, animals (without exception) are not.

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  3. "Taking honey from bees is an act of violence... It is an act that says, 'because I can, and because I 'own' you, I will do this.'"

    No, it says "I'm hungry and want honey." When a bear takes honey, is he being selfish? He doesn't even have the decency to be gentle with the bees or replace their food with something else, he just tears right on in, not caring if the whole colony dies because of his actions. He could go and eat berries, but honey is tasty.

    "Honey is not "nature's bounty" as she claims. Honey is a product of insects, something they make for themselves that has a use in their colonies. It's not for us."

    And apples are products of apple trees and not "meant" for us either.

    "Speaking strictly to those who look to the Bible for moral guidance: God makes this same sharp demarcation on page 1 of the Bible: Plants are food, animals (without exception) are not."

    I guess you missed all the writing about it being okay to eat meat and use animals for human benefit.

    http://scripturist.org/2006/02/veganism-in-bible.html

    While honey may not be vegan, I think it is silly to act like taking it is some horrible thing. Its not like insects are self-aware. They're like tiny robots driven purely by instinct. They're probably as sentient as plants.

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  4. @ Anonymous

    As for people who say eating meat (or honey, or milk...) is okay because other animals do it.... First of all, other animals do that to survive while humans do not.

    Also, humans like to say we are a "higher" species (whatever that means). If we truly were "higher" then we wouldn't have these stupid debates over whether or not it is okay for us to kill or harm other beings for our own convenience. If we truly were "higher" we wouldn't compare ourselves with "lower" beings, like bears.

    Not only that but apple trees are NOT harmed by us taking a few apples (apples are meant to fall off the tree and spread seeds), so this, I feel, is a strange comparison.

    And as for you saying insects are not self-aware.... How the heck do you know that? And why should it even matter if they are? We cause them suffering and can even kill them when we take their honey. Maybe they're not self-aware, but I feel it lessens ME by causing them harm.

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  5. Check out this article on honey at the Satya animal advocacy magazine's site:

    http://satyamag.com/sept05/greger.html

    I think what this dude is missing is that honey, just as milk is made for calves, is made for bee babies (pupae). If humans needed honey to survive, it would be a different matter. But we don't need it. Like meat, milk, or eggs, we take it because it is convenient.

    We may not be able to stop suffering all together, but we can make a serious dent in it. And THAT involves avoiding honey.

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  6. I like bees and I'm researching colony collapse. Can vegans eat wolves and bears if they pose a threat?

    Religiosity aside, for most Christians this is the only scripture you need from Genesis 9.

    1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

    As near as I can tell, we didn't eat animals until after the flood when implicit consent was given by their creator.

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  7. Agave nectar taste like honey and it's vegan. I love it! I won't use honey anymore, since I heard that bees legs get painfully ripped off by machinery while the honey is collected. This world sucks!! Try Agave-yum.

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