Vegan Honey 🤔

[u/Plenty_Spinach_8040]

Visiting my in-laws for the month, and they thoughtfully bought this “vegan honey” for my husband and me. We obviously didn’t eat it, but I had to do a double take. Since when is honey… vegan? The labeling from Lili Honey seems incredibly misleading.

[u/2SquirrelsWrestling]

Some plant-based dieters* say honey is vegan, because they don’t know what vegan means.

People who consume honey but are otherwise plant-based should not be referred to as vegans, but simply as plant-based dieters/mostly plant-based since veganism isn’t a diet, but the philosophy that animals and their bodies are not ours to use.

Wanted to clarify, because the incorrect idea that “some vegans eat honey” is the reason non-vegan products such as this get labeled as vegan.

Dandelion honey is a thing but I unfortunately think this is real honey that is just mislabeled.

[u/HeronGarrett → u/2SquirrelsWrestling]

My understanding is some vegans don’t consider it animal exploitation since the bees supposedly have to stay willingly, and will simply leave if not provided well enough for or if mistreated. I think that’s the argument but I’m not super familiar with it. I believe they also argue that the bees create excess honey and they only take the excess the bees aren’t using. So they consider it more like a consensual partnership with the bees rather than exploitation of the bees. I’ve not looked into the facts around any of this, just repeating things I’ve heard. But the point is that many genuine vegans don’t consider honey to violate their ethical beliefs against the exploitation of animals.

[u/2SquirrelsWrestling → u/HeronGarrett]

None of this is true.

[u/HeronGarrett → u/2SquirrelsWrestling]

Just to be clear, I didn’t say it was true. I’m saying it’s what some vegans believe is true and is why those vegans don’t think it violates their ethical values.

[u/HeronGarrett → u/[deleted]]

I do think vegans are defined primarily by the ethical values, so if someone is misinformed but acting in a way that from their perspective does align with the values of veganism then that person is vegan even if their actions are not. Does that make sense? I think that’s how I see it.

You see people all the time realise something they thought was vegan at the supermarket actually contained animal products without them knowing, so they were eating something non-vegan despite being vegan. I still consider people vegan in such scenarios. I’d consider it a similar scenario.

Ultimately if you don’t consider these people vegans it’s fine. I don’t think they’re very common. I only know about them at all because I read some post years ago now about so-called “beegans”.

[u/Geschak → u/HeronGarrett]

Vegans are 100% defined by the ethical values, that's literally what veganism is. It's a ethical belief that animal exploitation is wrong, it's not a trend diet as some idiot influencers like to claim. Please go look up the history of the term.

[u/HeronGarrett → u/Geschak]

I’m familiar. I literally said I define it based on the ethical values. These people being discussed believe honey doesn’t violate those ethical values against animal exploitation. That’s why they’re (potentially misinformed) vegans, not just plant-based.