Can Nicole Lapin Be A Honey Eating Vegan?
Written by Vegetarian Star on September 22nd, 2009 in Food & Drink, Journalists.
Veganism is supposed to include diet and lifestyle, so presumably, a vegan who wore leather really isn’t “vegan” according to some strict standards.
Journalist Nicole Lapin, who calls herself a vegan, recently said she does eat honey.
Is Nicole really not a vegan for eating honey?
According to a definition of veganism from vegetus.org:
“Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals (Stepaniak).”
Although honey is not a product extracted from the bee itself, bees do produce it for their own food.
And beemakers force bees to make excess amounts of honey, so they’ll have food left after the honey is harvested.
Is this exploitation?
When bees aren’t producing enough, beekeepers give them supplements, usually mixed with sugar and water.
Blah! That’s like replacing the gourmet almond spread with generic brand peanut butter!
But most vegans who don’t consume any other animal derived or made product except honey don’t want to call themselves just vegetarian.
And those occasional fish eaters will stand by their vegetarianism.
Is it time to create sub definitions for vegan and vegetarian?
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September 23rd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
People also argue that ‘real’ vegans don’t eat sugar.
I think that both debates (bees & sugar) are a bit nit-picky.
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Even vegans don’t always know they’re not eating vegan.
Yes, you can choose not to consume meat and dairy easily, but what about that study that found a bunch of non vegan ingredients at “vegan” restaurants in LA?
Unless you cultivate everything in your own backyard and buy and eat nothing else, you can’t argue you’re completely “vegan.”
I almost ate a strawberry with a live bug on it. It was organic, so the little guy made it out alive.
Cool experience and I placed him outside, but the point is…even ketchup has grinded up bugs in it.
If you’re doing the best you can and have the goal of eating vegan, you have every right to call yourself one.
The nit picky nastiness is just a turnoff for those trying to become closer to vegan.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
It hard to become complete vegan in US, if u think about the egg that is put in each item.
December 8th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Well, if Nicole Lapin considers herself as a vegan, then she is not a full-pledged vegan as to the context and definition of being a vegan. Then I think we better respect her for she believe.
June 22nd, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Yeah, right! Perhaps, it is about time to redefine the term vegan and vegetarian. Why deprive yourself from consuming honey when it is good for your health? Just think of it.
November 30th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Hello those who are “Veganer than thou”,
I’ve been vegetarian for 31 years. I was mostly vegan 8 of those years, except I ate honey, eggs in wedding cakes (sacred food), and probably was “dosed” with non-vegan items accidentally any number of times. 31 years ago it was hard enough being vegetarian let alone vegan. Most of us didn’t even know that sugar was filtered through cow bones to make it white. I suppose if I had been eating white sugar instead of honey, someone could make a case that I wasn’t really vegan in my heart.
If you want to criticize Nicole for calling herself vegan, then you need your own little fundy religious cult. Because you are right, every one else is wrong, but you’ve lost sight of the big picture.
Nicole’s style will probably draw more people to consider a vegan lifestyle than the style of anyone who complains that she is not vegan enough.
If her intent is to avoid exploitation of animals, she is doing a better job than 99.2% of the US population. So if you are in the .8% who are vegan and don’t do honey, more power to you. But if you’re a fundy who is keeping tabs on everyone, watch out that you don’t eat a worm in your apple, a bug in your salad, or ride in a car, a bus or on a bicycle, most tires are made with stearic acid, which means they aren’t vegan. So you might just might have to ex-communicate yourself.
Hu