“Let food be
thy medicine and medicine be thy food” - Hippocrates
Honey
Please
note that honey is not part of a vegan diet. See the notes from the Vegan
Society below.
We do care
about these little creatures. They play an important part in raw food
production, especially fruits! Their decline in recent years is somewhat
alarming.
Generally
anything in a bottle, can, jar or carton has been heat processed, unless
you have specific evidence to confirm otherwise. The word "raw" on any
bottle, can, jar or carton has no specific meaning, other than as a
keyword for marketing purposes.
Please
consider growing some bee friendly wild flowers in your own garden.
Links
Vanishing
of the Bees "Bees are
dying in their billions. In the UK, around one fifth of honeybee hives
were lost in the winter of 2008/09. Bees pollinate a third of the food
we eat, and this contributes £200 million a year to the UK economy."
Vanishing
of the Bees DVD You can now purchase "The Vanishing of the Bees" on
DVD. See the right hand section.
The
co-operative Plan BEE "Bee populations are in severe decline all
over the world, but beekeepers and scientists are unsure what is causing
these losses. This matters because bees pollinate a third of the food we
eat, so without them there would be no apples, onions or even tea!"
The Vegan
Society "... However bees undergo treatments similar to
those endured by other farmed animals. They go through routine examination
and handling, artificial feeding regimes, drug and pesticide treatment,
genetic manipulation, artificial insemination, transportation (by air,
rail and road) and slaughter"
THE
HONEYBEE SANCTUARY "It all boils down to the question of whether we
dare to consider the bees' own needs or only our own." -- Gunther Hauk,
Toward Saving the Honeybee. The honeybee is nature's greatest
benefactor. Just as our heart does, she radiates her gifts of healing
and nurturing into the entire organism of a farm, invigorating all life.
She enlivens plants with homeopathic doses of formic acid, pollinates
three-quarters of the food we eat, stimulates the cow's digestion by
pollinating certain wild-flowers and, above and beyond all that, shares
with us the byproducts of her labors: honey, wax, propolis. Even her
formic acid "poison" has been shown to have therapeutic applications."
Bumblebee
Conservation Trust Saving the sound of summer Bumblebees are beautiful, hard working and incredibly important
pollinators. The UK had 27 species, but sadly 3 are nationally extinct,
and others are seriously threatened. Join today and help us to conserve
bumblebees for future generations to enjoy.
Bees
Action Network "Bees are in crisis. Agrichemical overload is causing
their death in drastic numbers, lowering their resistance to mites and
disease, and bees are also suffering from malnutrition due to modern
monoculture farming practices."
Links - you can buy raw honey. You just have
to know where it is!
'Uncle' Ramon - a Small Scale Beekeeper in the
Pristine Aragon Region of Spain. The Six Main Reasons You Should Avoid
Processed Honey and Buy Raw Honey
The British Beekeepers' Association The BBKA
works to promote bees and beekeeping and to provide a range of member
services to beekeepers in the UK. ... a higher public profile of
beekeeping, changes in EU farming support and major public concern for
the environment. There is now little argument that man’s production of
greenhouse gasses is affecting worldwide climates. In the UK this has
given us warmer temperatures so far but this may not be the only change
or even good news in the long term.
low-impact living initiative - topics, beekeeping
"A very cost-effective and fascinating hobby. Make your own gorgeous honey,
and your bees will also pollinate local fruit trees."
