Is Honey Vegan?

The answer you receive might vary, whether it's asked of restaurants, toothpaste or lip balm makers, or other businesses. Indeed, even some pamphlets about vegan living have stated that honey and other bee products such as beeswax, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and bee venom might be acceptable to vegans. In fact, all of these ingredients are animal derivates.

The word vegan was coined in 1944 by a small group of activists in England who formed it from the first and last letters of "vegetarian" – explaining that the vegan principle takes vegetarianism to its logical conclusion. This principle means avoiding, as far as possible, any practice that harms, exploits, or wages war on other animal communities. When applied to diet, it means adopting a plant-based repertoire free of all animal products. Thus, honey and other bee products are not vegan.

The following current events and information update our perspective on bees and what bees make. We offer it to help inform our discussions on this topic, which is now coming to the attention of people throughout the world.

We also provide sample recipes in which agave (an alternative to honey) plays a delicious role.

Bees Try to Defend Themselves

Animals have waited and waited for us to stop taking advantage of them, to stop poisoning their habitats, to stand up for the ecology that's the only home they know. Now, they are making moves to protect themselves from us. Honeybees, environment correspondent Fiona Harvey reported in The Guardian , are taking emergency measures against our use of pesticides.

By sealing off cells full of pollen contaminated by pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals from the rest of the hive, bees are keeping tainted pollen out of the meals of their growing young members.

Jeff Pettis, a beekeeper and an entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, indicates that this new activity signals crisis: "Bees would not normally seal off pollen."

Bees also collect a substance known as propolis from plants. They use this resin, with its natural anti-bacterial qualities, to line their hives, and sometimes they will cover a small intruder with the resin. The housekeeper bees are now using propolis to seal the contaminated pollen cells. Notably, bees are also sealing off pollen that contains substances used by beekeepers to kill mites. Not just the mites but the chemicals also cause trouble for bees.

But the bees' last-ditch efforts to save themselves appear to be unsuccessful, according to Pettis. The activity foreshadows colony collapse.

Let it be a message to us. We're discourteous, unwise and dangerous to ourselves and the ecology we too must live in when we torment insects and other invertebrates, automatically dismiss them as pests, and assault them with chemicals. They themselves are the most effective controllers of insect numbers (some because they are predators; others because they are parasites—just think of ladybugs and how they control the aphids in the garden). And they pollinate the plants on which all of Earth's life ultimately depends.

Bees living near intensive farming sites suffer poor nutrition; and the international bee trade, which forces bees to move, exposes them to new diseases. Some measures taken to prevent the sick bees' deaths – such as putting large numbers of bees in huge super-hives – only makes them sicker, according to a recent study by the United Nations.

May we recommend avoiding bee products completely? An excellent plant-based nectar is agave; and organic maple syrup is as versatile a sweetener as it is easy to find (especially in North America). It's available widely in the Americas; for orders in Europe and elsewhere, try Groovy Food.

Ginger Lemonade is a refreshing choice from Friends of Animals' cookbook, Dining With Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine —originally inspired by a Vegetarian Times recipe. To make it:

Combine a 3-inch piece of peeled, fresh ginger, thinly sliced and crushed, with 1 cup agave nectar and 3/4 cup water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat; cook 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer until ginger is aromatic and mixture is syrupy, about 10 minutes. Then let the juice cool; discard the ginger.

Transfer it to a pitcher; stir in 1½ cups fresh lemon juice (6 to 8 lemons) and 4 cups of cold, sparkling water. Add one thinly sliced lemon. Chill.

Pour lemonade over ice, and garnish with mint sprigs. Serves 4 to 6.

Here's another great recipe for the summer and autumn months. It also appears in Dining With Friends, which is a wonderful gift for a new vegan or anyone who enjoys preparing easily workable and wonderfully delicious recipes.

Apple Sauce

Ingredients:

3 lbs. green and MacIntosh apple
½ cup apple juice or cider
1½ Tbsp. lemon juice
1 large cinnamon stick
6 Tbsp. agave nectar
½ tsp. ginger

Preparation:

On cutting board, peel, core and slice the apples into quarters, and then into quarters again. Place the apple pieces in a medium pot with apple juice or cider, lemon juice and the cinnamon stick. Bring to boil over medium heat, and then lower heat to medium-low, stirring occasionally and cooking for 15-20 minutes until apples have fallen apart. Then add agave nectar and ginger. This apple sauce, warm or cold, will serve 6 to 8.

Related articles by Lee Hall, Legal Vice President for Friends of Animals:

Free the Bees! One Green Planet (June 2011)
Making a Space for Bees ActionLine (Spring 2008):