I just put some industrially-produced honey in my tea and thought to myself, "what makes a vegan?"
Originally, my plan was to be less than militant about honey. I had hoped to use bee-friendly honey, but isn't any honey better than factory-farmed sugar or high fructose corn syrup? But apparently vegans are all up in their grills about honey. I need to do more research, apparently. But it seems like honey is a by-product of bee life, and bees aren't really domesticable in the same way cows or sheep are. We can't pump bees full of antibiotics and force them to live in quasi-fertility for their entire lives. they're bees! They live, they die, they make honey. They still live under a monarchy, for pete's sake. So I grabbed some honey packets from starbucks the last time I was there and now I use it in my tea, but I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should just get a jug of agave syrup and do away with the massive amount of packaging and bee abuse.
What makes a vegan, part two:
I know that the responsible vegan thing to do would be to stop wearing leather. I have a good collection of shoes, and none of the shoes I have purchased in the past 36 years have be bought with the justification of "and it's vegan!" I love my new leather boots, I enjoy the longevity and style of leather shoes, and I really don't see myself ending the leather use. I try to buy high quality shoes, and often with quality comes the assurance that the leather was ethically obtained. But I don't have that much cash, and I need some style in my life. Not buying leather shoes is a much bigger imposition on my lifestyle than avoiding dairy and I'm going to feel pretty resistant about this. I will confess that my friend KK's simple shoes are pretty darn cool, though.
So I won't win the vegan award this month. I still believe that making small changes is better than making none at all. By consuming fewer animal products and buying higher quality produce and legumes, I'm voting with my dollar. So I'm not going to get hung up about bees and leather, but I am going to do my best to buy well and encourage sustainability over consumption.
ps- I just did a search on Zappo's for vegan shoes and came up with a lot of spirts-inspired shoes, slippers, and these horrifying items.
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