Nectar of the Gods...
'Next I come to the manna, the heavenly gift of honey...A featherweight theme: but one that can load me with fame..."
-Virgil from Book IV of the Georgics.
Is Honey appropriate fare for a Vegan?
See, this really sux because I know the answer is absolutely and positively 'No', but I LOVE honey. I mean seriously adore the stuff. I have at least 5 cups of tea a day, each with 1/2 tsp of honey. Could I just have sugar instead? Yes, certainly. Should I? Yes, certainly. Could I get off my lazy ass and buy malt syrup or rice syrup instaed? Yes, I could and have, damn it, there's barley syrup in my cupboard right now. However, as many people could tell you, I am something of a romantic, especially when it comes to food history and connotations, and I just have this inexplicable romantic thing for honey.
The simplest reason why honey isn't vegan is by definition. The term vegan was coined by Donald Watson in 1944 and was defined as follows:
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 practise 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.
But we don't need to go back to 1944 to define honey as not vegan -any definition of veganism agrees with the reduction of animal suffering, and honeybees (Apis mellifera) are, without a doubt, animals. Do vegans only care about the phyla "above" Arthropoda (the one bees are in)? No, Arthropoda includes lobster and crab. In answering my own question,-Honey is definately NOT vegan. It is, however, extremely delicious. So is Golden Syrup, rice syrup, barley malt and Cane and palm sugars. I guess I can be big enough to throw over this, my last 'anti-vegan' behaviour...
For those non-vegans out there, here are two charming things that can be done with honey, -both benefit a bit from a delicious significant other sharing in them:-)
(1)miskwimin amo sisi bakwat -strawberries crushed in pure honey as a paste....(Mohawk Indian recipe used for winter stores)
(2) In Eastern custom, a spoonul of honey is poured into the palms of a newly married couple's hands. They must lick it off fo each other as a sign that they will now take all their food together, and it is said to ensure that the husband will not lift his hand to his wife except to caress her, and none but loving words will spring to the wife's lips -not during the aptly names honeymoon but forever after.
Wondern what vegans in the east do? Smack each other around a lot I guess. As it should be,-all this sweetness can be a little cloying...
posted by Cath @ 2:00 PM
4 Comments:
I'm wondering if honey manufacture is considered cruel? I suppose the bees will collect honey anyway, and to make the honey they require flowers, so their out in the fresh air buzzing around nature surely doin' their thang.
Probably the cruelest part would be stressing them out by using smoke to take the honeycomb away from them without being stung, right?
Ahh, if only that were the case. In fact, I should just stop here, agree with you and we can get on with licking palms etc BUT...
No, in commercial honey production, the Queen is 'retired' (killed) every five years, and many many many drones are killed during the removal of the comb slides and their subsequent scraping. Apparently the smoke causes some distress but to me, that's not so problematic. The other problem is that, like most other food production industries, unlike the good old days where if you wanted honey you had to risk getting stung (not to mention hunt for days on end to find the hive), we now just exploit millions of bees. The other issue is the extreme intelligence and social behviour of bees. They are very clever little chaps, who unfortunately do have a central nervous system, therefore DO feel pain. Obviously I don't need to mention that honey is food for larvae that are summarily destroyed when the honey is harvested.
I know, -I don't want to know all this either.
I never claimed to be a perfect vegan! I am trying to give up honey though. I have had barley malt all day today instead in my tea, and luckily I like Golden Syrup alot!!
By the way, I SOOOOOOO want a cigarette and a glass of wine tonight (back to the working week tomorrow). Can I have one night a week when I have some wine and 2 cigarettes? Please???!!!
Hey Cath, do please try and stay off the ciggies completely. If you are a smoker, then by all means, go back. Else, if you want to actually give up smoking, then trying to have a 'couple' is not going to help. In my opinion, of course.
On bees - I love honey. Lots. I have recently discovered citrus honey. So my justification is a grasp at straws. But the smoke actually supresses their activity. Think of it as like getting stoned. Now, if someone gassed you with Mary-Jane every now and again as you go about your slavelike existence, would you complain? Really? Oh, aye, they are being exploited, but I can't see how they actually suffer. The Queen is killed, but then she would be killed in the natural environment by the new monarch anyway. Bees are intelligent creatures, yes, but like ants, their 'society' is ruthless. Its fecking Sparta in there! Thats how I justify my weakness on this front.
I agree, but the fact is that you can't call yourself 'vegan' while eating honey. Also, justifying it by saying 'it would happen naturally anyway' is a very shaky line IMO. Animals die naturally to predators, -naturally cows create milk, it's what we do them that makes all this unnatural and abhorrent and not to be tolerated. I won't speak for anyone else, but I am definately going with the rice/malt/barley substitutes. The principle of the matter is important to me, as well as the acualities. Mind you, I'm not 'up in arms'about this one, so if others decide to keep using honey (i.e. Cam) -I won't be putting my two-cents worth in.
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