Is honey vegan?

Ōtautahi - Bees are subjected to genetic manipulation, their hives are smoked out and their wings and legs are torn off as they’re pushed out of the way, all so people can grab their honey.

The explanations for the decline in bees in New Zealand include habitat loss, the effects of industrialised agriculture and insecticides, and the presence of diseases and parasites such as Varroa destructor.

While honey bees carry out most worldwide pollination, their population is in decline. Many academics and scientists blame the use of pesticides and intensive farming methods. But is honey vegan?

A lot of vegans avoid honey altogether because it involves animal exploitation. The UK Vegan Society says honey is made by bees for bees.

Many vegans consider it the same as cow’s milk, or consuming eggs as the product made by the animal is not intended for humans.

Bees make honey by collecting nectar from flowers. Then, it is transported back to the hive and turned into honey. It is fundamental to a hive’s wellbeing.

Bees spend their entire in spring and summer making honey so that it can be stored inside the hive for winter.

They only eat nectar and pollen from flowers, so when there are no flowers or it’s too cold to get to them, the bees will starve. It is not an individual bee that the honey is feeding but the colony, made up of a queen and about 10,000 worker bees in the winter.

There are more than 20,000 species of bees on the planet and their life span is just a few weeks, long enough for them to reproduce. All species are reliant on the food they collect from flowering plants.

When bees visit the flowers for their food, they transport some of the pollen from the male part to the female part of the flower, allowing it to reproduce seeds and fruits which is why they are so important for agriculture and the ecosystem.

There are more than 90 million beehives across the world, according to Statista. Despite the necessity honey has on bees’ survival, production is a vast multi-million-dollar market and their population is dwindling.

Of the 2000 wild bee species in Europe, one in 10 is facing extinction, The Soil Association says.

However, further statistics conducted by Bee Culture show a steady rise in honey consumption, as well as in price.

For most vegans, eating honey is not an option. This is because bees are insects and animals and vegans avoid products made of and by animals.

Equally, many members of the vegan community care for the environment, which insects play a huge part in conserving. It is agreed among many scholars and scientists that a decline in pollinators spells disaster for the environment.

Biosecurity New Zealand has contracted Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research to survey managed bee colonies since 2015. The annual questionnaire asks beekeepers about winter colony losses and the possible causes. See the 2021 survey.