honey some more info

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Here is some info I got off the PETA site.

 

How About Honey?

 

In the honey industry, the buzz word is profit. Like

factory farmers, many beekeepers take inhumane steps

to ensure personal safety and reach production quotas.

It is not unusual for larger honey producers to cut

off the wings of the queen bee so that she cannot

leave the colony, or to have her artificially

inseminated on a bee-sized version of the factory farm

" rape rack. " (6) When the keeper wants to move a queen

to a new colony, she is carried with " bodyguard " bees,

all of whom--if they survive transport-- will be

killed by bees in the new colony.

 

Large commercial operations also may take all the

honey instead of leaving the 60 pounds or so that bees

need to get through the winter. They replace the rich

honey with a cheap sugar substitute that is not as

fortifying or tasty. In colder areas, if the keepers

consider it too costly to keep the bees alive through

the winter, they will destroy the hives by pouring

gasoline on them, killing most of the bees with the

fumes, and setting them on fire. Other times, keepers,

who feel that lost bees are easily replaced, allow

them to die when trees are sprayed with insecticide.

Bees are often killed, or their wings and legs torn

off, by haphazard handling.

 

To produce a pound of honey, bees must get pollen from

2 million flowers and must fly more than 55,000

miles.(7) Honeybees returning to the hive from a

pollen-seeking expedition " dance " in figure eights to

" map out " a route for other bees to follow. These

dances " encode information about the distance and

direction of a target that can be miles away from the

nest, " said Thomas D. Seeley of Cornell University.(8)

 

 

According to the Cook-DuPage Beekeepers' Association,

humans have been using honey since about 15,000 B.C.,

but it wasn't until the 20th century that people

turned bees into factory-farmed animals. In 1987, the

honey " crop " netted $115.4 million.(9) Luckily, many

sweeteners are made without killing bees: Rice syrup,

molasses, sorghum, barley malt, maple syrup, and dried

fruit or fruit concentrates can replace honey in

recipes.(10) Use these substitutes to keep your diet

bee-free.

 

 

Jenn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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