Why don’t vegans eat honey?

There is a lot of confusion surrounding the discussion on whether or not vegans can eat honey. Some people even argue that buying honey is ‘good’ for bees. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I am going to break down the reasons why honey cannot be considered ‘cruelty free’ and why vegans choose not to consume it.

• To put it simply: honey is made by bees for bees – In the same way that cow’s milk is made for calves, honey is produced by bees for their own consumption. Bees actually store honey for colder months, when they will be lower in food sources. The stored honey acts as an emergency supply for them to make sure that the colony will survive the harsh winters. This means that if the honey is taken from them to be sold for human profit, many bees go without food and can end up dying of starvation. The honey also contains nutrients that are essential for the bees functioning. This is important as our stripey friends work very hard – it actually takes 12 bees their entire lifespan to make just one teaspoon of honey.

• The cruelty involved – Unfortunately, there are multiple ways that bees are harmed in the production and harvesting of commercialised honey. One bee seems to suffer the most in this industry – the queen bee. She will endure being artificially inseminated, having her wings clipped and finally, being killed off after harvest. The rest of the hive, however, can be just as unfortunate. In most cases entire hives are killed off for the winter, as it is cheaper for bee keepers to do this, than to keep them alive with artificial food (which doesn’t contain the same micro-nutrients anyway). There are various ways that bee keepers cull their hives. These include: drowning them, gassing them with CO2, suffocating them in bin bags or sealing off the hives and burning them. Sometimes bee keepers will only cull the majority of the hive, in order to keep some to use again the next year.

• The decline in bee populations – Even if the honey bees are not killed for harvest, the existence of these hives can have a huge impact on the decline of other wild bee populations. Despite what you might think, there are actually thousands of populations of bees. The unnatural breeding of honey bees has lead to a huge decline in other bee populations, which are essential in pollenating the huge variety of wildflowers. It has even been stated that honey bees are not as effective at pollenating in comparison to other bee colonies which is very concerning. The decline in wild bee populations means the decline in plant reproduction – the primary source of food for all living beings on the planet.

• The impact of transport – In some cases honey bees are actually transported overseas in order for farmers to set up hives. This can be very dangerous as it could lead to the spread of parasites from other countries which could be fatal for some colonies. The honey itself is also a transported commodity and it is reported that up to 95% of the UK’s honey comes from overseas, which substantially increases the carbon footprint of this sweetener.

So what’s the solution? As we can see, the consumption of honey is detrimental to bees, the planet and consequently, people. However, it is not the only option that we have to sweeten our meals – thankfully there are multiple vegan alternatives to honey. These include sweeteners like: agave nectar, maple syrup, date syrup and brown sugar. There are even companies creating vegan honey alternatives in an attempt to match the taste exactly! Hopefully this has given you more of an insight into the production of this sticky substance and some motivation to swap it out for some cruelty free alternatives in the future.

Please feel free to share your thoughts as well as your favourite substitutes for honey in the comments!