Honey - Food for Humans? (Stepaniak)

[Guest guest]

I just finished reading an interesting article

about honey (from Robert Cohen's newsletter,

NotMilk) and thought others might enjoy it.

 

 

 

Honey

 

 

 

" .Many years ago, I witnessed a brilliant author and

passionate animal rights activist lecture about the

vegetarian diet. Her name is Joanne Stepaniak. Joanne

is the author of The Uncheese Cookbook, Raising Vegan

Children, The Vegan Sourcebook and many other wonderful

guides to vegetarianism. Recently, I came upon her

response to that same controversy regarding honey. I

have yet to read or hear a better elucidation of this

topic. In Joanne's words:

 

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" Regardless of how careful we are, it is impossible

to live a totally harm-free life. All animate sentient

beings inflict some form of injury or death to others

simply by their existence. Humans displace or destroy

large and small life forms whenever we erect buildings,

plant seeds, dig crops, burn wood, fly airplanes, drive

cars, operate factories, walk on grass, or bat our eyes.

This is simply an aspect of being alive.

 

The difference between vegans and nonvegans, however, is

the element of intent. Vegans consciously strive to do no

harm to any sentient life, including insects. This does

not mean that vegans do not hurt others inadvertently,

but that it is never their aim to do so.

 

Honey is made from sucrose-rich flower nectar that is

collected by honeybees and then regurgitated back and

forth among them until it is partially digested. After

the final regurgitation, the bees fan the substance with

their wings until it is cool and thick. This mixture,

which we call honey (which is essentially bee vomit),

is then stored in the cells of the bees' hive and used

as their sole source of nutrition in cold weather and

other times when alternative food sources are not available.

 

During the collection of flower nectar, the bees also

pollinate plants. This is part of the natural process of

life and is necessary and unavoidable. Even though humans

inadvertently benefit, the bees do not pollinate plants in

order to serve human needs; it is simply a secondary aspect

of their nectar collecting. The honey that bees produce is

stored in their hives for their own purposes. When humans

remove honey from the hive, they take something that is not

rightfully theirs.

 

To collect honey, beekeepers must temporarily remove a

number of the bees from their home. During the course of

bee management and honey collection, even the most careful

beekeeper cannot avoid inadvertently injuring, squashing,

or otherwise killing some of the bees. Other commodities

may be taken from the hive as well, including beeswax,

honeycomb, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly.

 

Bees are not harmed by the process of pollination -- it is

something they would do whether or not humans were involved

or reaped any profit. If one were to stretch the point,

using honey could, in a broad sense, be considered analogous

to dairying. Furthermore, there is no reason to take honey

from bees other than to sell it. Utilizing bees to pollinate

crops in no way necessitates ravaging their hive.

 

Although the issue of honey is not deemed the most pressing

concern of many vegans, honey is nevertheless considered an

animal product. Because there are numerous alternatives to

honey, from a vegan perspective there is no justifiable

rationale for using it. Furthermore, the vegan position on

honey is definitive. Honey was prohibited for use by vegans

according to the 1944 manifesto of the British Vegan Society

(veganism's founding organization), a position consistent

with the requirement for full (vegan) membership in the

American Vegan Society since its inception in 1960.

 

Sweeteners are not necessary for human health. There are

virtually no essential nutrients (in fact, there are hardly

any nutrients at all) in sweeteners, so our use of them is

purely for personal pleasure. Although the labor force is

typically exploited on sugar plantations, even humans with

minimal choices have far more options than the honeybees.

Humans can live quite well without sugar or honey. As a

rule, extensive use of sweeteners is found only in affluent

societies. If vegans want to indulge in sweets, there are

many substitutes available: organic, unbleached cane sugar

(somewhat kinder to the environment, but not necessarily

better for the workers); beet sugar; maple sugar; maple

syrup; concentrated fruit syrups; rice syrup; barley malt;

and sorghum syrup, among others. We do not need to choose

between exploiting humans or bees in order to satisfy our

sweet tooth. Concerned vegans can avoid harming either by

eliminating sweets from their diet or by choosing

compassionate alternatives. "

 

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Best,

 

Bob

 

Bob Farrell

cofounder, Path of Health group

part of an exchange-based community

PathOfHealth-

 

 

 

---subject line inspected and post trimmed in community spirit---

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

On Sunday 30 December 2007, Bob Farrell wrote:

> I just finished reading an interesting article

> about honey (from Robert Cohen's newsletter,

> NotMilk) and thought others might enjoy it.

 

Its a bit pedantic.

 

--

the kneeling fool

 

raw, holistic, natural diet for body and mind

http://health.rawfoodsforhealth/

urine_therapy

[Guest guest]

Pedantic

 

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

 

noun [C] DISAPPROVING

a person who is too interested in formal rules and small unimportant

details

 

pedantic Show phonetics

adjective DISAPPROVING

giving too much attention to formal rules or small details:

They were being unnecessarily pedantic by insisting that Berry

himself, and not his wife, should have made the announcement.

 

If anyone would like any other definitions for the word Pedantic they

can find them in

 

http://www.onelook.com/

 

which is a wonderful line I found years ago.

 

Or perhaps you might find this too pedantic.

 

 

I found he article terrific and very thorough and well written. I

saved it for future reference.

 

One persons pedantic is another's thorough - matter of interest and

perspective.

 

Louise

 

c rawfood , the kneeling fool

<kneel.pardoe wrote:

>

> On Sunday 30 December 2007, Bob Farrell wrote:

> > I just finished reading an interesting article

> > about honey (from Robert Cohen's newsletter,

> > NotMilk) and thought others might enjoy it.

>

> Its a bit pedantic.

>

> --

> the kneeling fool

>

> raw, holistic, natural diet for body and mind

> http://health.rawfoodsforhealth/

> urine_therapy

>