Honey, the great vegan debate.

So, I made some tofu the other day. It was honey roasted. Here I am, trying to be all vegan and stuff and didn't even think about honey being an animal product. I did some research and wow, there is a crazy debate in the vegan community about honey. It seems like there are two schools of thought. Old school vegans who do NOT eat honey and other people who claim the title vegan who do eat honey. No judgement from me, I am just interested to learn more and the WHY's of the whole debate.

Some blogs I read asked the question, "Is honey the milk of the insect realm?". I don't know. I know bee's are really important to our vegetable and fruit crops and there always seem to be something in the news about new pesticides that harm bees or killer wasps from Africa that want to kill the bees. I know that honey is actually not the main purpose of the bee industry in the US. It is pollination and honey is actually a by product that the bees produce naturally, without any duress. (this last part seems to be under debate).

I am going to revisit this topic as I learn more. I think that I read a quote today that said, if the worst thing you do as a vegan is eat honey, you are doing great. Honestly, if I choose to give it up, it will be one of the last things I give up since I just bought a metric crap ton of it. It is supposed to really help with arthritis and join pain, although some people say there is no nutritional value at all.

Cont...

02/07/13
So a vegan friend gave me this link to read about honey. In case you are interested and would like a read.
After today, I am going to stop obsessing about honey. I think there are a few other steps I can take and some other things I can work on before I revisit this topic with any real input. Currently, I feel a bit badly after reading this article. But honestly, I just never really considered insects in my compassionate animal repertoire. I mean, maybe I should? I will give it serious thought. My husband actually has a friend that is a Bee Keeper. I might get her input, just to have a balanced view.

One thing that seems to be a constant though, honey seems to bee*(pun intended) the line in the sand that makes non vegans (some, ok, a lot) think vegans are a little nutty. Ok that also isn't entirely true, although I have read some voracious debates so far and they make my head spin!

Actually I am finding my friends reactions uhm, interesting to say the least....but I will post more about that later. ;)