Well, we know there's some controversy over whether or not it's OK to eat honey, so we thought we'd go straight to the source and ask Mrs. Bee.

Me: Hello, Mrs. Bee. I hope you're having a splendid morning. What do you think about giving people some of your honey?

Mrs. Bee: Bzzzz bzz bzzzzzz bz bzz &%*&%e# BZZZZ!

Me: Well, I guess we already knew that's why you had your stinger, but we'd still like to take a little of your honey. You don't mind sharing do you?

Mrs. Bee: Bzzz bzzzz bz &%(&$*#!

Me: Well, of course we care more about cows. They're bigger!

Mrs. Bee: BzzBzzzzzz Bz BzzzzzBzzz!

Me: What's that? You say we should show a little more appreciation for you after all that you do for us, like pollinating everything and all? Well, I don't know why you say that. We give you lots of sugar water when we take your honey!

Mrs. Bee: Bzzzzzzzzz BzzBzzzzzBzzz Bzz *%&^#$@%!

Me: You say you don't like sugar water? You only eat it to keep from starving?

Mrs. Bee: Bzz Bzzzz Bzzz Bzzzzzzz.

Me: You say if we think sugar water is so good, we should keep it for ourselves and leave your honey alone?

OK. Thank you Mrs. Bee. And there you have it folks. I guess that about sums it for today. Happy eating! And happy eating to you too Mrs. Bee!

Just a question. If for whatever reason John decided that he needed, or wanted to include honey in his diet, should he have kept it a secret and been a hypocrite to advocate one thing and do another like other raw foodists have done in the past, or been honest. It's up to him what he eats. Do we need a whispering campaign about someone who runs a vegan board but is seen eating honey?

There are still other raw boards like 30BAD and Doug's board for '' hardcore '' raw foodists to avail themselves of if they're that worried about someone who eats a 99.9% vegan diet and .01% whatever.

Q2. Do all fruit trees need to be pollinated? by bees? by humans? I'm just a city person.

Q3. What about the people sitting here using electricity that is generated by nuclear reactors? Should they switch off the electricity supply? And the rest of the vegans using electricity generated by dirty coal powered polluting Power stations that are doing more damage to the environment than a bit of honey. Maybe they should refuse to use any electricity at all?
Where does hypocricy start and end? I'd rather someone was honest.

A1: Yes, I agree. I appreciate that John was honest about it.

Still though, eating honey is not vegan, and I personally see it as harmful to bees. Just as it's OK that John spoke up, I feel it's OK for me to speak up too. I'm hoping John decides to keep this a vegan forum, whatever his personal choices might be. I also hope he wouldn't feel like a hypocrite for doing that, because I don't think he would be.

And who knows, maybe John might change his mind and decide to stop eating honey. That's what I'm really hoping. It's not impossible. Change happens! I think he would be a great example for all of us.

As for other forums, if you are suggesting that people should leave this "vegan" forum because they are vegan, well that's exactly what worries me about this new turn of events, but I will consider it.

A2: No, not all fruits require pollination by bees - just most of the fruits we normally eat. All seed-bearing plants technically have some form of fruit. Many plants have several pollinators, and all may be necessary. Bees play an essential role in the plant growth and diversity necessary to perpetuate the entire ecosystem. It seems we really don't know all the consequences to us humans if we lost the bees (as if humans should be our main concern), but we would lose much of our planetary flora as a direct result, and we don't know which other pollinators will follow.

As to the immediate effect to humans, without pollination by bees, it's my impression that there will likely be a massive decline in the supply of fruit. It used to be that almost all common edible fruit flowers were pollinated by wild bees. But so many wild bees have died due to loss of habitat, pesticide use, disease, etc., that many fruit growers are renting honeybees for pollinating their orchards. That's helping to spread disease to surviving wild bee populations. The honeybees are dying off themselves due to "colony collapse disorder" and disease-carrying mites. I just don't think now is a good time to be raiding their hives of their essential nutrition and giving them sugar water instead. I mean we've seen what sugar water has done to humans. And even if we take just a little honey, we're creating an imbalance for the bee. We don't need the honey. They do. They didn't make it for us.

A3: My computer is powered by our solar system, but whatever it was powered by, and whatever else dumb thing humans happen to do (including me), does not justify doing other dumb things to helpless animals who cannot speak for themselves. Imagine if your baby were being threatened by some big huge monster, and the other monsters were discussing whether or not it was OK to hurt your baby. Some monsters thought it was OK to hurt your baby because all the monsters have computers powered by nukes, so why not hurt babies too!?! Wouldn't you think there was some kind of disconnect to that logic? You would be correct.

Thanks for asking though BJ. That was bold. I think I'm on the warpath here, but it's no offense to anyone, including John or anyone else. I'm just trying to protect my little furry friends. (Bees are furry)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2011 09:33AM by suncloud.

Suncloud, you sound like a nice caring person. The point i'm trying to make is that the world and all the issues facing it are complex. Most of us here are similar minded, so rather than fight amongst each other over minor differences, let's focus our aggressive energy to so many other things wrongs in the world. If we agree on 90 - 95% that's pretty good.

BJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do we need a whispering campaign about someone who
> runs a vegan board but is seen eating honey?
That's being too strict, in my opinion. If anyone is downgrading someone who eats Honey, then they need to examine their own Head......WY
P.S. That reminds me of something in the Bible about casting the first Stone.

I think what BJ meant was that if John Kohler hadn't spoken up, the result might have been that "whispering campaign".

I agree with WY, and I hope no one thinks I'm downgrading anyone who eats honey. That's not my intent. It's the choice that I'm opposed to, not the person. None of us are better or worse than any other of us: vegan, or beegun or rawfood or whatever, as far as I'm concerned.

BJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just a question. If for whatever reason John
> decided that he needed, or wanted to include honey
> in his diet, should he have kept it a secret and
> been a hypocrite to advocate one thing and do
> another like other raw foodists have done in the
> past, or been honest. It's up to him what he eats.
> Do we need a whispering campaign about someone who
> runs a vegan board but is seen eating honey?
>
> There are still other raw boards like 30BAD and
> Doug's board for '' hardcore '' raw foodists to
> avail themselves of if they're that worried about
> someone who eats a 99.9% vegan diet and .01%
> whatever.
>
> Q2. Do all fruit trees need to be pollinated? by
> bees? by humans? I'm just a city person.
>
> Q3. What about the people sitting here using
> electricity that is generated by nuclear reactors?
> Should they switch off the electricity supply? And
> the rest of the vegans using electricity generated
> by dirty coal powered polluting Power stations
> that are doing more damage to the environment than
> a bit of honey. Maybe they should refuse to use
> any electricity at all?
> Where does hypocricy start and end? I'd rather
> someone was honest.

I wonder if the issue is honesty or if it is transparency and consistency.