Ask Lemmy

Vegans are not a monolith. Some do, some don't. The decision generally comes down to their motivations & their education level.

Since ethical honey sourcing is actively good for both bees and local ecosystem, many vegans will consume ethically sourced honey. As opposed to meat where even the most ethical forms still involve the death of an animal.

Besides that many vegans view it as their 'cheat' option to curb their cravings. But also, there is very little reason to consume honey vs raw sugar, the flavor is similar especially once mixed into other food items. So some cut it simply because it is easy to cut.

My understanding is most do but it's the subject of occasional controversy.

Depends who you ask. I know a guy who's vegan because he likes animals. I asked him about honey and he said "fuck insects".

But opinion differs because bees are pretty much free to go about their lives and we just steal the honey every now and then. It's not hurting them and not keeping them confined, so....

Others put the line at no hurting animals ever. I don't ask about fleas or mosquitos or tapeworms though.

I am vegan, because I want to minimize animal suffering. if insects have the ability to suffer is highly debated. honestly I think they could just be different enough for us to not recognize their intelligence, like we do/did with fish. I will eat honey when offered, but would not buy my own. tldr: I wouldnt reject it. but I would also not but it myself.

Used to be vegan for 5ish years.

It is a grey area and personal preference. Are you vegan for morality, health, global sustainability, etc....

It depends why someone is vegan (diet, not movement).

I was vegan for health reasons, and local honey helps with allergies so I ate it.

Yes.

not all vegans are the same but personally i use agave over honey

Maybe but honey is far more humane than eggs.

I believe insects can suffer too so yes

I have never met a vegan who was okay with honey but I have had plenty of non vegan mother fuckers constantly bring this up as if its this huge edge case point of conflict. Its made and taken involuntarily from animals. It ain't that hard to figure out.

Most reject honey. There are those who don't and there are vegans who want to strictly deny that label to those who don't.

Eggs? That's pretty universally rejected.

"honey, I'm home!"

shocked gasp "I want a divorce!"

There's been a lot of Japanese studies showing insects aren't so dumb recently. Same with fish.

So I've ranked them up and don't consume honey anymore. I already considered fish sentient before the recent studies anyways but now I'm validated lol.

I would be more interested in knowing if commercial honeybee pollination is vegan ok or not, and the same with buying boxes of bumble bees to pollinate inside greenhouses.

yes. the reason the term vegan came about was because of the looseness of vegetarian. vegetarian would inply no eggs or insect unless it had a rider. like lacto/ovo vegetarians will ingest milk and eggs. honey was usually not to much of an issue. so vegan started being used for people who don't eat animals or anything that came from an animal like honey or milk. There is a thing called fruitarian that theoretically will only eat the parts of the plant that the plant made to be eaten. Like fruits. Steve jobs was into it before he died. I think he thought it would cure or help his cancer or something.

I suppose they should probably avoid products that use shellac as well.

• hard candy
• chocolate
• gum
• ice cream
• popcorn
• pretzels
• cookies
• cakes
• pies
• vitamins and supplements