Arright, sit down, you’re about to get some knowledge dropped on you by somebody with beekeepers and meadmakers in the family.
The
“toxic synthetic sugar substance” you’re referring to? Is sugar water.
Literally SUGAR and WATER. There’s nothing synthetic about it. And the
bees only rarely need a LITTLE bit of sugar water to help them get
through, because if they’re provided with enough nectar, bees will make a
shit-ton of honey. Most hives generate more honey than they can ever
use.And when a hive starts getting too full, the bees may swarm and try to go find a new place to live. Do you know what happens to a more than three-quarters of swarms that leave their hive? THEY DIE. Yup. Either they can’t find a new hive, or they run into predators, or they wind up landing somewhere that humans don’t want them and then exterminators get called.
So removing a few frames from the hive, taking out the wax and the honey, and replacing them for the bees to fill with new comb and honey and larvae is actually GOOD for the hive. The bees stay busy, they’ve got frames to fill, the queen doesn’t feel the need to go anywhere, and their human buddies can help keep them safe from natural predators and pesticides.
The mutually-beneficial relationship between humans and bees has existed for literally thousands of years. People keep hives, bees pollinate crops and make honey, people harvest the honey, the bees get extra protection and can happily buzz away keeping the plants healthy and making more sweet sugary goo.
Honeybees are an endangered species. If they die, not only does your
vegan diet become completely impossible, but the entire planet is
royally fucked.And do you know who’s doing more than anybody else to keep them alive and make sure we don’t all starve?
BEEKEEPERS. And they treat those bees like their own damn children. They’re not going to feed them toxins or “steal” all their food, they want the bees to be happy and healthy and THRIVING.
Being vegan is absolutely fine, but don’t go trying to tell other people how to eat and don’t sound off on shit until YOU educate YOURSELF. Try talking to an actual beekeeper sometime. Or at the very least, read an article by a beekeeper instead of relying on someone else’s scare tactics.
Meanwhile agave nectar, often touted as the healthy eco friendly vegan alternative, has a higher level of fructose content (per weight) than high fructose corn syrup, and has been linked to a possible increase insulin resistance and heart disease.
As for eco friendly? The plant itself takes anywhere from 7 to 14 years to grow, and in order for it to be harvested (and you bet your white ass it’s not a white person doing this labor intensive procedure) the entire plant has to be killed.
That’s right, it’s a highly non sustainable resource with long term environmental ramifications for the locations it is grown in (primarily Mexico and South Africa) both in terms of economics and cultivation. But don’t worry, we’ve gotten around that by building plantations which grow only monocrops of the plant which in turn require the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides , which, are you ready for this, are killing the bees on a global scale.
But sure. Human consumption of honey is harmful. Yea, okay. Sure.
one more time folks, your vegan diet relies on bees.
if humans didn’t have this symbiotic relationship with bees, your diet in a temperate climate, new york hipsters i’m looking at you, would consist of like 90% barley and all your teeth would fall out by age 30.
nobody’s making you eat honey, but y’all need to stop talking ignorance in people’s inboxes like you’re the door-to-door missionary of food righteousness.