Aibu to be pissed off that vegetables and nuts aren't vegan?

[autyspauty]

I was watching a clip from QI where they said that avocados and other fruits and vegetables and nits aren't actually vegan because Bees are boxed up and sent to the farms/ orchards etc to pollinate the crops.

I can't believe it.

I'm not even vegan but I do my best to be as eco conscious as I can and there are just so many ways that even a peice of fruit is ladder with tonnes of CO2. Not only do I have to consider the moles my food has travelled to get to the warehouse/ factory to be transported to be packaged and then transported to the shops, but now I have to think about BEES being transported in lorries to pollinate the food before its even fucking grown?

You can't avoid plastic packaging on your food, you can't avoid air miles or road miles on your food but I didn't even think about the fucking road miles on the pollinators to pollinate the food.

There is a photo doing the rounds of a fruit cup picked in Thailand, packed in Venezuela and then shipped to US. Its a joke, the fruit in that cup has travelled more miles than most of the people buying it but you wouldn't even guess about the fucking Bees being shipped over to pollinate in the first place. (countries may be wrong but you get the ideA)

Bees have been pollinating plants since bees and plants were a thing.

YYY to @Sparklybanana

I don't understand why they aren't vegan... no bees we harmed I'm during the filming of this pollination

Depends on the vegan “sect” as some vegans are against all domestication of all animals. Even pets. So having domesticated bees in man made hives being “exploited” would be contrary to their beliefs. They seriously think all animals should be rewilded and human contact made nonexistent.

Farmed bees in monocultures of things like almonds are harmed. They aren’t happy wild bees, and can’t be because there’s nothing else to live on for miles in any direction once the almond flowers are over. They are constantly moved on, and any bee who doesn’t make it back to the truck in time just dies alone. Bees can’t survive without their colony and they can’t survive in a monoculture once the flowers are gone. It’s a pretty stressful life for them. .

I know they’re only insects, and I’m not vegan. I do (or did when I wasn’t so broke) my best to eat local, sustainable and very high animal welfare food. And I wouldn’t knowingly eat products with bees used in that way. It is cruel, and people should know and be able to make a choice about whether they are ok with it or not.

It is not possible to eat without your food choices to cause some harm somewhere along the chain. Even if you grow everything you eat yourself there will be environmental and ethical implications.

Grow your own food

case closed

Mind blown! Free protein!

You’re all imagining this right? This is vegan enough for me.

But I’m not taking about that. I’m talking about this.

Yes, 3 yellow courgettes and a pumpkin will see me through the winter for veg.

Damn. Pressed post too soon, sorry. This. I’m not comfortable with this. It’s too industrial for me.

@Eeksteek
Yes that’s called low welfare standards which the US is world infamous for.
The bee pollination services here are more low key and bee friendly.

Do you have any idea how much land you’d need to fully feed a family of four? You’d need 2 acres of arable land per family.

UK has 10 million acres of arable land. So, if you’re serious, we would need to deport almost half the population in order for everyone to “grow their own food”

Maybe Mr Hare was dead already?

Could mankind eat seaweed ?
No bees under the sea

Do bees go into space ?
Or is everything grown in space hand pollinated ?

The world would be a sad place without bees

Yes. But we don’t grow almonds. So there’s every chance that vegan almond milk…isn’t.

People choosing to eat these products need to know this to make an informed choice. Poo poohing ‘of course pollinated nuts are vegan, bees are natural pollinators, silly handwringers’ (not that you were, but some people are) because they are assuming picturesque hives not vast trucks is unfair, unhelpful and based on lack of information. I’m just wanting people to know what they are judging. I’m not vegan and I think it doesn’t achieve what people mean it to, for all sorts of reasons. But neither does this.

Agree with @Eeksteek esp about informed choice.

Bees quite happily go into space. They’ve been on the International Space Station.

We already eat seaweed….British have eaten samphire for millenia.

Yep, agree it’s all about information. So important too that we show that commercial pollination services are different in the U.K. from the US because of better welfare standards. So, yes, perhaps oat milk made in U.K. is ok, but almond milk made in US not ok because while both use bee pollination services, one is done how you showed and the other done how I showed.

Yes, plus add on food miles.

I used to be well informed on all this stuff then I had children and my focus was pulled. Do try to have organic when I can afford it and always check country of origin.

Pollinated by bees? You monster!

you don't bring Bees from across the country to your allotment though, you just plant flowers and hope they are attracted! That's not the same thing at all as its a natural process.

carrots are root veggies and don't need pollinating to grow.

it's not the Bees. It's about the humans boxing the Bees and transporting them to farms/ orchards etc to pollinate and then boxing them back up to send them home. it's just extra extra extra.

We really cant even grow vegetables without turning it to shit.