Honey?

Someone asking me about honey. They know beekeepers and say they have “very happy bees” so questioning the *use* of honey and why vegans don’t use it. This is a worthy conversation, especially in light of this particular subject. Vegans are aware bees are struggling. We are aware of the critical necessity of bees in our food supply. We could talk all day about colony collapse, the trucking of agricultural bees, industrial honey production, but backyard bees…?

Here’s my take…I see it like I view cats and dogs. We have put these species in a terrible predicament with our ignorance. With bees it is our ignorance of food, chemical additives, and the overall Big Ag system that is killing all of us and the planet we live on. If our motivation is to try and restore balance, to provide shelter and be safe/protected...for example, my husband and I did place a (as yet unoccupied) hive in our backyard if anyone wants shelter. We will not be bothering them if they do. Their honey is not ours and we will not be taking any.

Same as my companion animals. I am providing them safety. I am providing them guardianship. Humans have created a huge problem with our companion animals and having pets in my home is simply a way of protecting and saving as many of them as I possibly can. They are dependent on us and millions are carelessly tossed into a garbage can every year due to human selfishness, ego, and ignorance.

But my companion animals are NOT mine. I do NOT own them. I am their guardian. I am often their rescuer from sure death, but I am NOT their *owner*. I do NOT own them.

If our motivation is self-serving…if we view any sentient creature as being ours to *use* as we see fit, if we seek profits, or personal gain from their lives, if we dictate their lives, if we view them as property - all definitions of exploitation and enslavement. Even a small bee is a unique individual. There will never be another one exactly like that one. That little being lives a life separate from mine, is not mine, and does not belong to me. I prefer to live my life as a guardian and protector over being a violent dominator or self-serving exploiter.

I would not intentionally harm or interfere with another sentient life in any way other than to help them when able. In the world vegans aspire to have, bees would not need our help and we would leave them the hell alone to do their critical work for our Earth.

It’s about exploitation. It’s about slavery. It’s about the humongous human ego and erroneous thinking of superiority. It about simple morals – not *using* others when there are other options. Caring for nature so that these wonderful critters DO NOT NEED our help. It is silly and contradictory to state a desire to help bees if you are not vegan, because one nonvegan lunch further devastates our planet and therefore, continues to devastate the bees.

The more optimal way to approach this issue would be to nourish Earth so they can live. We are not more important than anyone else. If you desire to help the world (including ALL species on it) then you should go vegan immediately. The FACT is, the bees would be doing fine if people were vegan.

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(PHOTO taken in our backyard garden, logo is our garden page. We love bees! We want to care for the planet and all species on it, so we live vegan. Best way to help bees: plant nectar flowers, don’t use pesticides, and go vegan immediately.)
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https://www.facebook.com/GrowGreatGardens/

We are ALL Vegans

I believe [almost] all people are vegan at heart…even if they haven’t woken up yet…I believe almost every single one of us were born of a certain nature (easily evidenced by the behavior of children around the globe). Many people just continue to refuse to understand how their actions are in such conflict with their stated morals.

I truly see everyone as a future vegan. It seems so inevitable, doesn’t it? How could they *know* all the terrible consequences and not be vegan? How can they continue to live with themselves? Most people are not *bad* people and will be required to awaken as information flows more freely and they confront their dual personalities of Jekyll and Hyde.

It is so obvious how it contradicts our morals and our nature. This is similar to how I believe everyone actually does want to end animal *use*. Some just don’t understand yet. They don’t fully grasp or *see* the true underlying principle of nondiscrimination, slavery, oppression, even sentience.

But it doesn’t mean it isn’t there…festering. It doesn’t mean they don’t agree with veganism, even if they don’t know it. It doesn’t mean they don’t agree with ending slavery in all forms. It doesn’t mean they don’t agree with nondiscrimination. They just have yet to align and understand their morals so their behavior and their words are in agreement.

It takes a while, at least it did for me, to see all these opposing views and get comfortable with my own views. I did a lot of reading, which is ALWAYS a good thing to do. Decide your own views, but do it based on intellect, learning, and thinking…not on groupthink, bullies, or indoctrination of any form. THINK FOR YOURSELF.
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If you think exploiting, oppressing, enslaving, or causing suffering to another is wrong you already believe in being vegan.
If you are not vegan please go vegan today.
<3 <3
:) :)

Ex-Vegans ????

I try very hard to let others be. I often do not agree with tactics or posts, and mostly I keep my mouth shut. I am only compelled to speak when I feel a serious disservice is being done to veganism (and thereby, damaging to those who I work to help every day).

I think most vegans agree - it isn’t about us. I will also say it is always important to try and hear the words being said rather than allow our ego to respond first. To achieve understanding. Even in veganism I sometimes observe such defensiveness to learning it is disappointing.

I am quite used to the willful ignorance of carnists, who often get upset, defensive, angry, and/or uncomfortable in the face of new information and simply refuse to think rationally. Admittedly I understand it less from vegans - who I generally presume had an open enough mind at least at some time to *hear* rational thinking instead of just defensively spitting back blather and utterly irrational explanations.

A recent exchange bothered me a little bit, and I wanted to write a little more about it. It wasn't just the comment (that I am about to mention), it was several vegans who were of the same mentality that is well-summed up in the following quote:

Someone used the line, "He became a nutritionist to help people go vegan."

Over the years, I have seen conclusive evidence that at least some of the people who call themselves “ex-vegans” were created by *vegans* who *sold* veganism under false pretenses.

I find that ethically reprehensible. I work in the medical field. I DO NOT talk to patients about "going vegan." I talk to them about plant-based eating as an evidence-based way to relieve medical issues.

People frequently do not stick to *diets* so of course they are “ex-vegan” when they quit their *diet* (or whatever false river these *vegans* are trying to *sell* people up).

They have no idea how much damage they are doing to such a simple ideal of nondiscrimination and nonviolence.

This is not difficult…would anyone advocate for rapists to rape less? Molesters to molest less? Why not? Because if we recognize they hold sentience and moral value then we feel it is a moral imperative to stop it immediately, correct?

That is veganism. IT’S SIMPLE. It is just rational thinking. If one is willing to skew that perspective then I implore them to do more thinking, because their behavior is not suggesting this very basic moral understanding. I have said THOUSANDS of times – what people then do with this character-defining information is ON THEM, but for a *vegan* to compromise *veganism* in any way is simply unconvincing and unlikely to leave a clear and long-lasting impression.

Additionally, if one does not even support their own supposed moral beliefs they continue to suffer from unrecognized cognitive dissonance and is worth some introspection, at the very least.

“Ex-vegan” – like tomorrow I’d suddenly be agreeable to child molestation or the raping of humans…smh…NEVER.

In the light of the true beliefs of veganism there is no such thing as an “ex-vegan,” only someone who may have called themselves vegan under a cloudy misunderstanding of veganism.

We avoid avoidable suffering, slavery, exploitation, oppression, and violence. How anyone could disagree with that in any way, shape, or form is astonishing.

I am vegan for LIFE – why? Because I am VEGAN, duh.☺

"A Beautiful Day"

“It’s a beautiful day”

For the animals on feedlots of mud and disease?
Or the dairy cow grieving her kidnapped babies?

For the millions of birds living in cages or sheds?
Or for those having their feathers ripped out for a pillow or spreads?

For those transported long distances all crammed together,
with no food or water in all forms of weather?

For the snakes, alligators, crocs, killed just to steal skins?
Or the sharks who are brutalized for the soup made of fins?

How about those in the rodeo spurred into aggression?
Or for those who are caged and live under oppression?

For all of the fish, suffocated to death?
And for all those being slaughtered, who struggle for breath?

For those living on concrete, never known sun or grass?
Or those stuck in a bowl, a life encircled in glass?

For those who are heartlessly cooked while alive?
Or those who’ve been clipped and unable to fly?

For the bee who we steal the brew of their toils?
Or the many homeless and killed to make cheap filler oils?

For all those abandoned who are left all alone?
Or those who lived in the forest but were burned out of their home?

For those seen only as profits for the wool that we use?
Or those who’ve been sentenced to a life spent in zoos?

For all the wildlife, being culled and displaced?
For those seen as value only for how fast they raced?

For those trapped, caged, electrocuted, so we can steal their furs?
Or for those used in cruel testing that does not provide cures?

For all of the slaves forced to perform in silly display?
For who do you think it is a beautiful day?

~ POEM BY KARYN SWANEY
©Karyn Swaney

Please help make it a "beautiful day" for others, too. If you are not vegan please go vegan today.