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The Great Vegan Honey Debate
Is honey the dairy of the insect world?
By Daniel Engber
There's never been a better time to be a half-assed vegetarian. Five years ago, the American Dialect Society honored the word flexitarian for its utility in describing a growing demographic—the "vegetarian who occasionally eats meat." Now there's evidence that going flexi is good for the environment and good for your health. A study released last October found that a plant-based diet, augmented with a small amount of dairy and meat, maximizes land-use efficiency. In January, Michael Pollan distilled the entire field of nutritional science into three rules for a healthy diet: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." According to a poll released last week, Americans seem to be listening: Thirteen percent of U.S. adults are "semivegetarian," meaning they eat meat with fewer than half of all their meals. In comparison, true vegetarians—those who never, ever consume animal flesh—compose just 1 percent.
The flexitarian ethic is beginning to creep into the most ardent sector of the meat-free population: the vegans. In recent years, some in the community have begun to loosen up the strict definitions and bright-line rules that once defined the movement. You'll never find a self-respecting vegan downing a glass of milk or munching on a slice of buttered toast. But the modern adherent may be a little more accommodating when it comes to the dairy of the insect world: He may have relaxed his principles enough to enjoy a spoonful of honey.
There is no more contentious question in the world of veganism than the one posed by honey. A fierce doctrinal debate over its status has raged for decades; it turns up on almost every community FAQ and remains so ubiquitous and unresolved that radio host Rachel Maddow proposed to ask celebrity vegan Dennis Kucinich about it during last year's CNN/YouTube presidential debate. Does honey qualify as a forbidden animal product since it's made by bees? Or is it OK since the bees don't seem too put out by making it?
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I don't really like vegetarians, it's nothing particularly personal or perhaps it is. My main gripe is the ones who say they're vegetarian
but I eat chicken, or
I eat fish. That isn't vegetarian, it's basically someone who is very sad trying to fit in on a popularity trend. Are people's lives so sad that they have to alter their eating habits so they have something to talk about, or it makes them stand out is chic.
I can almost, but not quite understand why people won't eat meat for ethical reasons, but I must point out that this is not a pot kettle black moment as I think it's pretty well known around here that I will not eat badly brought up meat, especially chickens; but if it's treated well I love a big slice of meat with some onion gravy, or wedged between two thick slices of tiger bread and a dollop of strictly free range egg mayonnaise. Why cut meat out of your diet all together though? I have a feeling that the hippie
save the world fashion is permeating through.
Now, with these, for a better word, tossers, who are deciding whether it's okay to eat honey or not they're obviously missing the point. If it takes such a lot of deliberation to decide whether it conforms with their beliefs surely it means it's fine. Surely they'd only refuse to eat something which is blatantly obvious.
To answer the question though, yes, I think that they'd be fine eating the honey - the bees do not secrete it, it's simply concentrated nectar which they've processed and stored in special cells.
Bah.
02-08-2008
The Great Vegan Honey Debate 
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