The concept of flexitarians (vegetarians who occasionally eat meat) began to spread among strict vegetarians who do not eat meat. In recent years, some people have begun to relax the once-strictly defined rules of vegetarianism. Of course, they have strong self-esteem and will not drink milk or chew big meat, but they have opened the door to dairy products in the insect world - enjoying a spoonful of delicious honey. However, this spoonful of honey sparked a heated debate in the vegetarian world.
Five years ago, the Semantic Society of America recognized a new word, flexitarian, because it best described a growing wave of "vegetarians who occasionally eat meat." There is now even more evidence that a flexitarian diet has environmental and health benefits.
A study published in October last year showed that a meal based on vegetarian food, supplemented by a small amount of dairy products and meat, can maximize land use efficiency. In January this year, best-selling author Michael Poland refined a healthy diet in a nutritional sense into three rules: "Eat, not too much, and eat mostly vegetarian food."
In the United States, 13% of adults are semi-vegetarians, consuming no more than 50% meat in their diet. In comparison, true vegetarians (who never eat meat) account for only 1%.
The concept of flexitarianism began to spread among strict vegetarians who did not eat meat. In recent years, some people have begun to relax the once-strictly defined rules of vegetarianism. Of course, they have strong self-esteem and will not drink milk or chew meat, but they have opened the door to dairy products in the insect world - enjoying a spoonful of delicious honey.
However, this spoonful of honey sparked a fierce debate in the vegetarian world. Every relevant forum has its shadow, it is everywhere, but it remains unresolved. Radio host Rachel McDowell asked presidential candidate Dennis Kushny this question during last year's CNN/YouTube presidential debate - whether honey should be banned by vegetarians like other animal products. Woolen cloth? In other words, since bees do not seem to suffer too much in the process of making honey, can they not be compared with meat, dairy products, etc.?
Conservative vegetarians are adamant about this ambiguity: honey is also an animal product and should be banned. In 1944, when the first Vegetarian Society was born, founder Donald Watson called dairy-vegetarians "half-way between meat-eating and a truly humane and civilized diet" and implored participants to join his "complete Journey”. There is obviously no place for honey on this journey—anything related to bees, such as bee pollen, propolis, and royal jelly, is prohibited.
They believe beekeeping, like the dairy industry, is cruel and exploitative. Bees are forced to build hives of the same size on movable frames (some say these hives are more susceptible to parasite contamination than hives of different sizes found naturally in the wild). The queen is imprisoned in the hive while the worker bees are busy increasing production and are sprayed with antibiotics to prevent disease. At the same time, the caretaker releases smoke into the hive to obscure the bees' alarm pheromones in order to successfully retrieve the honey. Some people say that bees do not make honey for humans, so our behavior is tantamount to stealing.
So, any vegetarian who eats honey but does not drink milk has tacitly accepted the concept that "the pain borne by bees is not as great as that of a cow" seems to be correct but is essentially the same. This kind of compromise is what Watson and other vegetarian pioneers are worried about - once the pain borne by bees is weakened, how should we treat the problem of oppression of other insects? Like silkworms and cochineal insects? And does a bee endure less pain than a scallop or an oyster? If we can eat honey, why can't we eat them?
Flexitarians counter that if they insist on digging into the horns, there are actually many things they shouldn’t eat. After all, you can’t just focus on the ethical issues of making honey and ignore the beekeeping industry as a whole. In the United States, honey production is only a small part of the overall bee economy; most of the uses of beekeeping are actually to pollinate fruits and vegetables.
According to food journalist and author of "Barren Autumn" Ron Jacobson, commercial bees are indirectly used to produce about 100 kinds of food, including almonds, broccoli, cherries, cucumbers, and lettuce. , peaches, pears, plums, sunflowers, tomatoes. Even the alfalfa crop we feed to our dairy cows is sometimes pollinated by bees.
The life of these pollinating bees may be even worse than that of honey-making bees. They face the same hard work. In addition, they have to spend most of their lives in container trucks, living on high-fructose corn syrup. Traveling back and forth across the country. Management and breeding methods have reduced the genetic diversity of these bees, leading to large-scale mortality.
Even those strict vegetarians who boycott honey are eating food that these bees have worked hard for. In fact, there is no solution: we can no more replace bees with machines than we can replace mules raking with tractors. Perhaps you'll look for grain that's naturally wind-pollinated or fruit that's served by wild insects. But what about the hordes of insects that are inevitable in large-scale agricultural production? If so, then farmers are also to blame: they may not spray pesticides, but they do use natural fertilizers or animals to eliminate the bugs that thrive on their crops.
Faced with questions about the insect holocaust, vegans fall back on common-sense principles: animal suffering should be "avoided as appropriate" rather than "avoided at all costs." By this logic, it's not a sin to get rid of termites that infest your furniture, nor is it your fault to accidentally kill a bug on your windshield while driving to the farmer's market. But this principle does not absolve us from drinking honey. First of all, honey is optional - especially compared to what is prohibited by the rules of the Vegetarian Society. It is neither the only option that provides certain nutrients, nor is it the only dessert for vegetarians.
From a practical perspective, all this bickering and bickering helps no one (or animal). You either eat honey or you don’t; debating this issue publicly only makes the vegetarian movement look silly and pedantic. Matthew Ball, chairman of the "Vegan Peak" group, believes that vegetarians' good intentions of setting clear dietary rules and restrictions will not actually alleviate the suffering of animals: "The individual behaviors of strict vegetarians will not make any difference." He said, "If vegetarians focus on the issue of bee mining, it is easy to lose sight of the real and unarguable issues."
Bauer himself does not eat honey, but he is Five new members are about to be admitted who are hesitant about insects, not a fanatic who abides by every rule of the Vegan Society.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from this debate is that vegetarians, please be more tolerant of the rules.