Many years ago, I witnessed a brilliant author and
passionate animal rights activist lecture about the
vegetarian diet. Her name is Joanne Stepaniak. Joanne
is the author of The Uncheese Cookbook, Raising Vegan
Children, The Vegan Sourcebook and many other wonderful
guides to vegetarianism. Recently, I came upon her
response to that same controversy regarding honey. I
have yet to read or hear a better elucidation of this
topic. In Joanne's words:

"Regardless of how careful we are, it is impossible
to live a totally harm-free life. All animate sentient
beings inflict some form of injury or death to others
simply by their existence. Humans displace or destroy
large and small life forms whenever we erect buildings,
plant seeds, dig crops, burn wood, fly airplanes, drive
cars, operate factories, walk on grass, or bat our eyes.
This is simply an aspect of being alive.

The difference between vegans and nonvegans, however, is
the element of intent. Vegans consciously strive to do no
harm to any sentient life, including insects. This does
not mean that vegans do not hurt others inadvertently,
but that it is never their aim to do so.

Honey is made from sucrose-rich flower nectar that is
collected by honeybees and then regurgitated back and
forth among them until it is partially digested. After
the final regurgitation, the bees fan the substance with
their wings until it is cool and thick. This mixture,
which we call honey (which is essentially bee vomit),
is then stored in the cells of the bees' hive and used
as their sole source of nutrition in cold weather and
other times when alternative food sources are not available.

During the collection of flower nectar, the bees also
pollinate plants. This is part of the natural process of
life and is necessary and unavoidable. Even though humans
inadvertently benefit, the bees do not pollinate plants in
order to serve human needs; it is simply a secondary aspect
of their nectar collecting. The honey that bees produce is
stored in their hives for their own purposes. When humans
remove honey from the hive, they take something that is not
rightfully theirs.

To collect honey, beekeepers must temporarily remove a
number of the bees from their home. During the course of
bee management and honey collection, even the most careful
beekeeper cannot avoid inadvertently injuring, squashing,
or otherwise killing some of the bees. Other commodities
may be taken from the hive as well, including beeswax,
honeycomb, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly.

Bees are not harmed by the process of pollination -- it is
something they would do whether or not humans were involved
or reaped any profit. If one were to stretch the point,
using honey could, in a broad sense, be considered analogous
to dairying. Furthermore, there is no reason to take honey
from bees other than to sell it. Utilizing bees to pollinate
crops in no way necessitates ravaging their hive.

Although the issue of honey is not deemed the most pressing
concern of many vegans, honey is nevertheless considered an
animal product. Because there are numerous alternatives to
honey, from a vegan perspective there is no justifiable
rationale for using it. Furthermore, the vegan position on
honey is definitive. Honey was prohibited for use by vegans
according to the 1944 manifesto of the British Vegan Society
(veganism's founding organization), a position consistent
with the requirement for full (vegan) membership in the
American Vegan Society since its inception in 1960.

Sweeteners are not necessary for human health. There are
virtually no essential nutrients (in fact, there are hardly
any nutrients at all) in sweeteners, so our use of them is
purely for personal pleasure. Although the labor force is
typically exploited on sugar plantations, even humans with
minimal choices have far more options than the honeybees.
Humans can live quite well without sugar or honey. As a
rule, extensive use of sweeteners is found only in affluent
societies. If vegans want to indulge in sweets, there are
many substitutes available: organic, unbleached cane sugar
(somewhat kinder to the environment, but not necessarily
better for the workers); beet sugar; maple sugar; maple
syrup; concentrated fruit syrups; rice syrup; barley malt;
and sorghum syrup, among others. We do not need to choose
between exploiting humans or bees in order to satisfy our
sweet tooth. Concerned vegans can avoid harming either by
eliminating sweets from their diet or by choosing
compassionate alternatives."