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Ted&Alice

Rudy Canoza > wrote:
> This is really, *really* good.
>
>
> Is honey the dairy of the insect world?
>
> By Daniel Engber
>
> There's never been a better time to be a half-assed vegetarian. Five
> years ago, the American Dialect Society honored the word flexitarian for
> its utility in describing a growing demographic€”the "vegetarian who
> occasionally eats meat." Now there's evidence that going flexi is good
> for the environment and good for your health. A study released last
> October found that a plant-based diet, augmented with a small amount of
> dairy and meat, maximizes land-use efficiency. In January, Michael Pollan
> distilled the entire field of nutritional science into three rules for a
> healthy diet: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." According to a
> poll released last week, Americans seem to be listening: Thirteen percent
> of U.S. adults are "semivegetarian," meaning they eat meat with fewer
> than half of all their meals. In comparison, true vegetarians€”those who
> never, ever consume animal flesh€”compose just 1 percent. [that figure is
> almost certainly too high - Prof. Canoza]
>
> The flexitarian ethic is beginning to creep into the most ardent sector
> of the meat-free population: the vegans. In recent years, some in the
> community have begun to loosen up the strict definitions and bright-line
> rules that once defined the movement. You'll never find a self-respecting
> vegan downing a glass of milk or munching on a slice of buttered toast.
> But the modern adherent may be a little more accommodating when it comes
> to the dairy of the insect world: He may have relaxed his principles
> enough to enjoy a spoonful of honey.
>
> There is no more contentious question in the world of veganism than the
> one posed by honey. A fierce doctrinal debate over its status has raged
> for decades; it turns up on almost every community FAQ and remains so
> ubiquitous and unresolved that radio host Rachel Maddow proposed to ask
> celebrity vegan Dennis Kucinich about it during last year's CNN/YouTube
> presidential debate. Does honey qualify as a forbidden animal product
> since it's made by bees? Or is it OK since the bees don't seem too put out by making it?
>
> Old-guard vegans have no patience for this sort of equivocation: Animal
> products are off-limits, period. Indeed, the first Vegan Society was
> created in 1944 to counter the detestable, flexitarian tendencies of
> early animal rights activists. Founder Donald Watson called their
> namby-pamby lacto-vegetarianism "a halfway house between flesh-eating and
> a truly human, civilized diet" and implored his followers to join him in
> making the "full journey." That journey, as the society has since defined
> it, takes no uncertain position on honey€”it's summarily banned, along
> with bee pollen, bee venom, propolis, and royal jelly.
>
> The hard-liners argue that beekeeping, like dairy farming, is cruel and
> exploitative. The bees are forced to construct their honeycombs in racks
> of removable trays, according to a design that standardizes the size of
> each hexagonal chamber. (Some say the more chaotic combs found in the
> wild are less vulnerable to parasitic mites.) Queens are imprisoned in
> certain parts of the hive, while colonies are split to increase
> production and sprinkled with prophylactic antibiotics. In the meantime,
> keepers control the animals by pumping their hives full of smoke, which
> masks the scent of their alarm pheromones and keeps them from defending
> their honey stores. And some say the bees aren't making the honey for us,
> so its removal from the hive could be construed as a form of theft. (Last
> year's animated feature, Bee Movie, imagined the legal implications of this idea.)
>
> [the rest at:
> http://www.slate.com/articles/life/f...y_debate.html]
>
>
> The article is from 2008, and some of the embedded links in the Slate
> page are now defunct. One of them is worth elaborating, because of
> several great things it illustrates about the irrationality known as
> "veganism." It's in the third paragraph: "A fierce _doctrinal debate_
> over [honey's] status has raged for decades..." The first interesting
> thing is where the link used to go. It went to a site called
> VeganMeat.com that is no longer operating. "VeganMeat.com" - that's
> simply hilarious in and of itself. I doubt that it was trying to sell
> real meat; rather, it probably was selling products that appeal to that
> comical "vegan" desire for foods that resemble meat.
>
> The second interesting thing is the idea conveyed by the literal words
> "doctrinal debate." "veganism" is inextricably tied up with politics,
> specifically Marxian politics regarding so-called "exploitation." I
> explained long ago that "veganism" is nearly always a marker for far-left
> politics. Not all leftists are "vegan" or even vegetarian, but nearly
> all "vegans" are far-left zealots. "Doctrinal debate" evokes the image
> of the "Disabled LGBT Maoists Club" sitting up at 3:00am in the
> university dorm room arguing whether or not bottled water is "vegan."
>
> "veganism" is bullshit.

Vegans tend to be far-left? Interesting.