15 reasons why honey is not vegan

By Gloria Stovall

Honey is an animal product and definitely not vegan, but at the beginning of my conversion to the vegan lifestyle, I was oblivious and ignorant of the fact that honey was not vegan as I assumed as many often do, bees are not harmed in the process of making honey and bees are not technically animals; but that could not be further from the truth as bees are both animals and insects; and veganism is a lifestyle that omits animal products for ethical, health and environmental reasons. Honeybees are extensively exploited for the production of honey, not to mention, bees do not create honey for humans to eat-they create it as their own sole food source.  Just as cows do not produce milk for humans-they produce it for their own babies-calves.  

Surprisingly, there are a number of vegans who strongly believe honey sold locally as opposed to commercially, is ethical and vegan. Well…my fellow vegans, I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, local or not, raw or not, honey is not vegan or ethical regardless if it is “sustainable” local honey, and if anyone tells you otherwise, please give them the following 15 reasons why honey is not vegan. 

1. Bees do not create honey for humans to eat-they create it as their own, sole food source. 
2. Local honey is not vegan just as commercial honey is not vegan as the honey still comes from an animal (bee).  Yes, bees are both animals and insects.
3. Bees feed on pollen and nectar, but honey is their single source of food during the winter months. 
4. It takes the pollination of two million flowers- and about 55,000 miles of bee flights for a bee to produce a single pound of honey. 
5. Bees pollinate around one-third of the world’s food.
6. Millions of honeybees are transported around the United States to pollinate almond trees and avocados.
7. Forcing bees to gather pollen nectar from large swaths of a single crop deprives them of the far more diverse nourishing diet.  
8. As a result of intense farming methods in the United States, honeybees are dying in mass quantities due to pesticides, parasites, and malnourishment. 
9. Commonly, beekeepers replace the honey they remove from a beehive with a sugar substitute, which unfortunately causes the honeybees to overwork themselves to replace the missing honey. 
10. The sugar substitutes beekeepers give their bees greatly lack the vital nutrients, fats and vitamins that are found in honey, thus causing bees to be malnourished and weak.  
11. The honey industry abuses bees for profit. 
12. Bees are subject to genetic manipulation and their hives are smoked out. 
13. Sadly, the legs and wings of bees are often torn off as they are pushed out of the way as beekeepers remove their honey.  
14. Beekeepers often use inhumane methods to reach production quotas including cutting off the queen bee’s wings so she is unable to leave the colony. 
15. Many beekeepers also kill the drone bees to extract semen to forcefully inseminate the queen bee.    

Hopefully this article clearly illustrated and proved why honey is NOT vegan; and if I can be honest, there are over 100 reasons why honey is not vegan, but I decided to spare you the horrific and sad details of the honey industry and give you 15 reasons.  The other day I was thinking we know so much about the atrocities of the dairy and farming industry, but sadly, the cruelty honeybees endure on a daily basis is not as well known.  The good news is there are vegan honey alternatives, including maple syrup, agave nectar, rice syrup, barley malt, coconut nectar, molasses, sorghum syrup, vegan honea, fruit syrups and raw sugar.  

How will you measure your life?  What decisions will you make and what will be the consequences of those decisions?  The way we live our lives can be either beneficial or detrimental to the entire world, so why not adopt the vegan lifestyle and help make the world a better place for every inhabitant.   

Thank you so much for following my blog!  I pray you are well, safe and thriving.  Have a blessed week and Merry Christmas!  I will be in touch soon.