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What’s the buzz on honey?
Bridget Walsh on 07 September, 2011 |

As a vegan, I make the conscious choice to not consume animal products, and actively strive to remove my contribution to their demand. There are many reasons behind this choice for me: environmental, nutritional, ethical, sustainability, to name a few. As a brief run-down, I don’t eat meat, fish, dairy, eggs or honey, and I generally don’t buy leather, wool, silk or suede. I’m not perfect, and I don’t claim to be. But I really try to think about each and every choice I make as a consumer, and try my best to make my contribution to the world a positive one.
One of the main vegan choices I find myself defending is my abstention of honey. To your die-hard vegans, honey is and always will be a no-go. It’s created from the exploitation of another creature for our own gain, and it’s not acceptable. I’m going to admit that I’m a little more lenient. I don’t buy or consume honey at all, simply because it’s easier to just make a blanket ‘no-honey’ rule, than try and ethically source and then defend any honey in my life! In saying that though, I’ve recently taken to finding out a bit more about honey production, to help me understand (and generally be able to defend) my choices when it comes to honey consumption.
Wikipedia defines honey as “the complex substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants and trees are gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honey bees as a food source for the colony.”
Like eggs and, to a degree, milk, human consumption of any surplus of these animal by-products, in my opinion, is better than letting them go to waste. It is important to note however that, like honey is food intended for bees, cows’ milk is food intended for their babies - not humans! (As an aside, we are the only species who thinks it’s necessary to consume milk past infancy AND the only species who intentionally consumes the milk of another species. I digress).
As I was saying, the natural excess of these animal by-products is an acceptable realm for which we can indulge in consumption. BUT the issue arises when we begin to exploit the potential ‘excess’ and manipulate it’s production purely for our own benefit. This is where honey comes in. Speaking to someone who actively researches and participates in sustainable lifestyles and consumptions, here’s what he had to say about honey production.
Aside from the ‘exploitation’ of honey production, tell us a bit more about the role of the honey bee.
As I understand, honey bees are vitally important to our food system. If we lose them we lose a vast proportion of our food plants which they pollinate.
Is it possible for bees to be kept sustainably, and for honey to be produced for human consumption, without compromising on the key roles bees play in the environment, or the quality of life for the bees?
Bees naturally maintain a healthy colony by a varied diet of nectar and pollen from many different plants through the seasons which they make into nutritious honey, regulating the hive temperature at 35C (40C for making honey) and occasional swarming. Natural Beekeeping works with these natural behaviours. The hive is not opened regularly. Efforts are made to provide rich and diverse year round forage. Honey is only taken when there is surplus in the hive and enough left to feed the bees through winter, the colony is free to raise new queens and swarm when it needs. The bees kept are also ones suitable to the local climate and are kept in small densities.
So what’s the difference between sustainable, natural beekeeping and the conventional, industry standard?
Conventional beekeeping in many ways inhibits these natural health behaviours. The hive is opened weekly, causing the hive to cool thus stressing the bees, causing them to use energy in reheating it, and allowing a temperature that suits pests and diseases. Swarms are contolled and supressed by clipping the queen’s wings and other methods. It is common for all or most of the honey to be harvested and the bees then fed sugar (which is no replacement for the diverse nectar and pollen nutritious honey). Colonies are often kept in large densities that are more prone to disease and migratory beekeeping is common too (lorry loads of hives being transported vast distances to pollinate crops). Queen bees are bred artificially and types of bee are kept in unsuitable climates. Antibiotics and toxic substances are sometimes used in the hive.
So, the upshot of it all? If you’re just buzzing to get a hold of some honey, don’t just grab the cheapest or prettiest pottle off the supermarket shelves. Find a natural beekeeper who sells at your local farmers market or organic grocer. Vegan or not, your consumer choices can help protect the bees who keep our eco-system going, by making sustainable and ethical choices, honey!