honey

[Guest guest]

<< Bees don't die in the making of honey >>

 

Actually, Paul, many people wouldn't agree with this statement. Here are

some links for anyone who is interested.

Carol

 

Paragraphs 6-8 of http://www.pitt.edu/~hslst7/honey/honey.html ( " Honey is not

vegan " ) discuss treatment of bees by factory bee farmers.

 

Another good discussion is available at

http://www.vegsource.com/joanne/qahoney.htm ( " Is Honey Vegan? " ).

 

Excerpt from http://enterprise.powerup.com.au/~kkaos/alpha1.html ( " Ethical

Consumption " ):

 

* Bee products - pollen, honey, royal jelly, wax. Extraction of these

substances all leads to deprivation or damage to the insects. Sugar is often

substituted for the stolen honey, bees legs are sometimes torn off in pollen

collection. Bees wax is derived from the honey comb meant to accommodate food

stores and young of the insects. Used in lipsticks, many cosmetics, the wax

can be easily substituted with paraffin (petroleum based) or vegetable oil,

ceresin or carnauba wax. Beepollen is used in nutritional supplements,

cosmetic products and toothpastes.

 

A large list of beekeeping links is available at

http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/others.htm , a pro-beekeeping site.

 

And here's an excerpt from http://www.vegansociety.com/why/whyanimals.html

( " Why Vegan? " ) from The Vegan Society (the supposed coiners of the term

" vegan " in 1944):

 

BEES

 

In similar ways to other farmed animals, bees are manipulated to provide

a range of useful products - being honey, beeswax, propolis, bee pollen,

royal jelly (bee milk) and even venom.

 

Beekeepers puff smoke into hives to calm the bees and make them easier to

handle. However, this increases the chances of them being crushed during comb

manipulation.

 

To prevent her leaving the hive and taking the colony with her

('swarming'), the queen's wings are clipped. She is inseminated artificially

with sperm obtained from decapitated bees. The queen is killed when her

egg-laying abilities decline and, consequently, the hive becomes less

productive - usually after 2 years. During this time she will have laid

300,000 eggs; in the wild she would have produced over 500,000 during a

natural lifespan.

 

After removal, honey (produced by bees as a food source for lean winter

months) is substituted with a nutrient-deficient white sugar solution.

Artificial pollen substitutes are also deployed; however, colonies deprived

of natural pollen will soon become weak and less productive. Synthetic

pesticides and antibiotics may also be used.